Heather CloseReference and Research Services CoordinatorAlberta Legislature Library

The way we were…• Limited access to SharePoint• Static and labour intensive bibliographies and ‘Web Guides’• Lack of full-text, dynamic content• Scattered services • No statistics

Developing the Research Guides

• Goal: • Dynamic content-rich web-based portals structured on the Library taxonomy,

aligned with other Library services, maintained by Library Staff.

• Process:• Develop the taxonomy and apply to current services (Completed May 2013)• Build the foundation; identify core resources (Jun-Sep 2013)• Purchase the software (Sep 2013)• Design the site: integrating current services and core resources (Oct-Nov 2013)• Soft launch and presentation (December 2013)• Assign areas of responsibility (February 2014)

Breadcrumb Trail

Contact

Pages

Lock = Licensed content

Search Widget

• Reviewed:• Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus http://

www.thesaurus.gc.ca/ • UK’s Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary (IPSV)

http://doc.esd.org.uk/IPSV/2.00.html

• Compared:• Government News Releases• Caucus and Party websites

• Loosely based on portfolios• General enough to weather department changes• Tested and mapped headings to current library services

The Taxonomy

Building the Foundation of Each Subject Guide• Define the categories that would be the building blocks:• Databases• Organizations • Statistics

• Identify the core resources • One Librarian with the assistance of a technician

Links to EBSCO A-Z for library holdings and e-journal access

Areas of Responsibility

• Librarians assigned two to three topical areas each• All reference staff members

contribute with suggestions or assigned tasks• Training (Jan-Feb 2014)• Small assignments:• Review the core (Feb 2014)• Add a Think Tanks page (Mar 2014) • Add and maintain the “Newly

Discovered” box (Apr 2014)

Government and Politics

Health

Economics and Finance

Legislative

Process and

Affairs

Education and Trainin

g

Energy

The way we were…• Limited access to SharePoint• Static and labour intensive bibliographies and ‘Web Guides’• Lack of full-text, dynamic content• Scattered services • No statistics

• Goal: • Dynamic content-rich web-based portals structured on the Library taxonomy, aligned

with other Library services, maintained by Library Staff.

• Static • Citations & lists• Print and pdf • Unstructured• Scattered services • Labour intensive

• Dynamic• Content-rich• Web-based• Structured• Aligned services• Efficiently maintained by

Library staff

Ongoing Challenges

• Promotion and communications• Determining client needs• Reliance on old pages• Off-site access• Integration with varied and changing platforms• Measuring use (statistics)• Staff expectations and training

Heather CloseReference and Research Services CoordinatorAlberta Legislature Library

Thank You