LibGuides: the Future of Research Guides?

This year, the BLS Library subscribed to LibGuides, a platform for creating research guides from Springshare. The Library now has a growing list of research guides that students and faculty can use in their research. BLS LibGuides are available at http://guides.brooklaw.edu/. The list of LibGuides include an Administrative Law Research Guide, a Treaty Research Guide, a New York Civil Practice: Selected Resources, a LibGuide on Researching Statutes and one for New Jersey Legal Resources. The platform is another example of web 2.0. Students and faculty are encouraged to create a LibGuide account and post their own research guides for the benefit of other library patrons.

Putting together a research guide with LibGuides is easy as it relies on Microsoft Word which is familiar to most library patrons. An individual guide consists of multiple boxes of content, such as text or database links, a catalog search box, RSS feeds, embedded videos and more. These boxes of content can be shared across different guides. This feature allows users to import content into other research guides. While creating content on the LibGuides platform requires some time investment , the updating of those guides is faster than traditional formats like paper or regular HTML guides. The biggest benefit is that LibGuides are easily shared with other researchers.

As for the correct pronunciation of “LibGuides”, Springshare, in its LibGuides F.A.Q, states that the product is pronounced “Lib” as in “liberation”.