Looking for Information that is not Easy to Find: An Inventory of LibGuides in Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions Devoted to Grey Literature (original) (raw)

Abstract

In today’s academic society, one of the most popular web-publishing mediums is a university or college LibGuide. Succinctly defined as a content management and publishing system (Giustini, 2016), these sources of information promote knowledge and learning, and are often seen as the perfect solution for busy librarians and subject specialists. Founded in 2007 by Slaven Zivkovic (Springshare, 2013), an entrepreneur with several years’ experience working in libraries, and currently hosted by Springshare, a library technology vendor, LibGuides are presently used by 65,000 librarians and subject specialists across more than 5,000 libraries in 78 countries (Springshare, 2016). A key feature of LibGuides is that anyone can create, use, and learn from them (Giustini, 2016); as a collaborative venture, these guides not only enrich one’s knowledge, they also connect with information creators and seekers worldwide. Further, information produced and available on LibGuides is often material that may not be seen anywhere else; this unique content thus supplements any research pursuit. Libraries use LibGuides to create curricula on a specific subject for a course, promote library collections, and share information within one’s faculty, either locally, nationally, or internationally. As an information portal, content within LibGuides can be seen as a living document, constantly being updated, changed, or enriched. Via the use of a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) content creation approach, users can select templates, copy from existing LibGuides or start from a blank page (Giustini, 2016). Due to its flexibility and adaptability, virtually any LibGuide available on the web can function as a template for a new or existing subject guide. Various pages are linked together via the creation of tabs, functioning in much the same way as the tabs present in an Internet browser. Further, due to the web 2.0 nature of LibGuides, users are able to integrate multimedia content, such as embedding YouTube videos, Twitter feeds, or Chat widgets directly into their pages (Hamilton, 2010). As a collaborative tool, LibGuides can be set up to allow co-owners, even multiple users, to edit content within a guide. One cannot stress enough that grey literature is a vital source of unique information, often far more current than commercially published material, and circulating at a much faster pace than conventional academic journals. Further, due to its almost unrestricted character, grey literature helps to prevent bias, opening doors to new and emerging research. We believe that LibGuides are a type of grey literature and have a valid place among grey literature supporters, believers, and researchers. In our view, LibGuides should be considered for inclusion into the grey literature typology (GreyNet, 2016), as they are published online, easily accessible, provide up-to-date information, promote self-learning, and contain information that is often overlooked and neglected. In our paper, we aim to investigate grey literature LibGuides within university and college communities across Canada, documenting categories of areas and disciplines, showcasing how grey literature LibGuides play a pivotal role in research pursuits at academic institutions.Includes: Conference preprint, Abstract and Biographical notesXAInternationa