Managing subject guides with SQL Server and ASP.Net
| Date | 13 June 2008 |
| Pages | 213-231 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830810880324 |
| Published date | 13 June 2008 |
| Author | Araby Greene |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Managing subject guides with
SQL Server and ASP.Net
Araby Greene
Getchell Library, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, Nevada, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the content management solution for 50 subject
guides maintained by librarian subject specialists at the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
Design/methodology/approach – The Web Development Librarian designed an SQL Server
database to store subject guide content and wrote ASP.Net scripts to generate dynamic web pages.
Subject specialists provided input throughout the process. Hands-on workshops were held the summer
before the new guides were launched.
Findings – The new method has successfully produced consistent but individually customized
subject guides while greatly reducing maintenance time. Simple reports reveal the association between
guides and licensed resources. Using the system to create course-specific guides would be a useful
follow-up project. Skills learned in training workshops should be refreshed at regular intervals to boost
confidence and introduce changes in the system.
Practical implications – The advantages of centra lizing content and separating it from
presentation cannot be overstated. More consistency and less maintenance is just the beginning.
Once accomplished, a library can incorporate Web 2.0 features into the application by repurposing the
data or modifying the ASP.Net template. The now-organized data is clean and ready to migrate to web
services or next-generation research guides when the time is right.
Originality/value – This paper uniquely reports on an SQL Server, ASP.Net solution for managing
subject guides. SQL Server includes data management features that increase application security and
ASP.Net offers built-in functionality for manipulating and presenting data. Utmost attention was
given to creating simple user interfaces that enable subject specialists to create complex web pages
without coding HTML.
Keywords Content management,Guides and handbooks, Database management systems,
Academic libraries
Paper type Case study
Introduction
Subject guides are like snowflakes. At first glance, they are very much alike, but each
one is as unique as its subject matter and creator. Subject guides must accommodate
the research requirements of any subject and the priorities of any librarian subject
specialist, a task that seems, at times, like herding yaks with a sling shot. Librarians at
the University of Nevada, Reno value both customization and control over the guides
they build as well as the contribution of a common template to ease of use.
This paper is about making subject guides flexible yet consistent, current, easy to
maintain, accessible, and fast-loading. It is not about whether subject guides are still
worth producing. They will continue to lead users to the good stuff until the good stuff
is free. Meanwhile, expensive indexes and journals remain unfamiliar compared to
widely-used search engines. And they are difficult to use, compared to almost anything
else, particularly Google and Google Scholar.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Managing
subject guides
213
Received 3 January 2008
Revised 25 January 2008
Accepted 28 January 2008
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 26 No. 2, 2008
pp. 213-231
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830810880324
Unfamiliarity with resources and searching techniques can make subject guides
intimidating for novice researchers. For this reason, some traffic is deliberately
siphoned away from our subject guides by links to EBSCO’s general indexes,
Academic Search Premier and Masterfile, on the web page that lists all of the subject
guides. Finding “a few good articles” should not require beginning researchers to make
tough or unnecessary decisions about selecting databases, and success with these
user-friendly databases builds confidence as well as basic research skills.
Subject guides are usually the focal point in library instruction classes offered by
UNR library subject specialists. Students who have attended library instruction tend to
use subject guides more frequently, according to a case study conducted at San Jose
State University (Staley, 2007). Reference librarians often use them when working with
individual researchers at the reference desk, although everyone is acutely aware that
most users are reaching them remotely as self-help resources.
The subject guides (www.library.unr.edu/subjects/) and other helpful research
tools, such as electronic journal lists, course-specific help, style guides, and the
Library’s “Ask Us!” service are prominently featured on the UNR Libraries home page
(www.library.unr.edu/). While thoughtfully consolidated “help” resources lead to
increased usage and awareness (Arnold et al., 2004), it is certain that we could do a
better job of making the guides and other tools available on social networking sites.
However, in order to do that quickly enough to keep pace with major trends in
technology and flocking behavior, subject guide content must first be organized and
managed. This goal, maintenance issues, and the ever-present struggle to promote
costly licensed resources, drove the project from literature search to completion in
about two months.
What other libraries are doing
User-centered subject guides have begun to move from the isolation of the library web
site to popular social networking sites where users congregate. Librarians sensitive to
the information gathering styles of today’s students are looking at social software to let
users tag resources with their own words and access them from popular gathering
places like MySpace (www.myspace.com/) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/). Some
libraries are using online services such as LibGuides to assemble subject guides with
built-in Web 2.0 features, such as tagging, comments, and IM widgets (Kroski, 2007).
Libraries offering their LibGuides on Facebook have found a way to bring research
resources to users.
At the University of Houston, librarians are considering “building subject guides
collaboratively with users” (Coombs, 2006). If they can find new ways to deal with the
problems of security, spam, and authority inherent in open projects that use wikis and
blogs, it will be a significant step forward. At least two libraries have created attractive
subject guides with MediaWiki software: St Joseph County Public Library (South Bend,
Indiana), and Ohio University Libraries. However, the SJCPL Subject Guides (www.
libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_Page) are editable only by librarians,
and Ohio’s Biz Wiki (www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page),
though editable by students and faculty as well as librarians, requires the user to
request an account.
Even more thought-provoking is a fundamental and largely unaddressed problem
exposed in a study of “Internet subject guides in academic libraries” (Jackson and
LHT
26,2
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