We are, without a doubt, a Springshare library. Libguides? Check! Libanswers? Yes! Libchat? Yup! LibCal? You bet!
Although we’ve embraced Libguides as a platform for creating subject (and not-so-subject-based) guides, we hadn’t really been using Libguides in a way that many librarians currently do: as the main access point to the library’s online database collection. Instead we were using ResearchPort, a gateway maintained by the University of Maryland Libraries ITD center. We wanted to have more control over our database access point interface, so we decided to go with a Libguide. Here’s what I came up with: Databases Libguide (see screenshots below).
It has the same look and feel as our library site and our other libguides, but has some cool features I’m really proud of creating and adapting.
1. A drop-down Databases by Subject menu
The technical support at Springshare is amazing. I knew that I wanted to avoid creating separate pages/tabs for each of our subject categories, but I didn’t know enough about scripting to create collapsible menus. Enter Cindi Trainor at Springshare, who set up a great collapsible box feature for me to use. All that was left for me to do was style each of the subject boxes that that they smooshed together (yes, that’s a technical term) and looked like one giant box. Fooled you, didn’t I?I think this is a nice way to get a lot of useful content on the page without taking up a ton of room. Bonus: Our subject librarians can reuse these database boxes on their own subject guides!
2. A Find a Database search box
This is an adaptation of the search created by Scott Salzman at Furman University Libraries. He recently presented this amazing solution at the 2013 Springy Camp, thereby and was kind enough to offer his code and support.
You can learn more about this search box in the Libguide Scott created for his presentation. It’s a great alternative to using the “search this guide” feature embedded in Libguides, which will only give you the name (aka the letter) of the page in which the database link appears.
3. A space for database trials and our citation linker
If you have questions about the creation of this guide, email Veronica Arellano Douglas.
Librarian Design Share 
June 20, 2013 at 10:22 am
Looks great! I recently attended a class on using Libguides to create your library’s mobile site. It was easier than I expected and looked fantastic! There are just so many options.
June 20, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Thanks! I don’t often gush over products, but I’ve been really pleased with the customization options and all of the different ways Libguides can be used. P.S. Your blog is amazing.
June 20, 2013 at 11:57 pm
You are too kind 🙂
July 5, 2013 at 10:47 pm
I like how this looks – definitely updated and more visually pleasing than ResearchPort. And did you embed this guide in your website frame? (Does that make sense?) Our’s looks like a completely different site (lib.guides.umd.edu). I like the visual consistency!
July 8, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Thanks! Glad you like it. I think as a campus we’re ready to move away from ResearchPort for both databases and journals. Our Assoc. Director is looking into Ebsco A-Z for ejournal access.
Libguides is super-customizable so I just added in a custom header and custom css to give our guides the same look and feel as the rest of our website (minus the college header, which took up too much real estate). I hope that answers your question!
July 9, 2013 at 12:08 pm
Definitely! It’s good to know how customizable Libguides is.