Nicole and Darcy put project in context. 

• Been looking for method of doing subject guides more easily for a while, and LibGuides fits.  Has great features, affordable, but...  easy to make ugly.

• Our job is to make guidelines for design on pages (ex., # of tabs, limit of tab title size, show/hide/moderate comments, good names/standards of names to call each box).  And when NOT to use LibGuides.  Think about cool new features in LibGuides that we can use.  Be innovative.  Think outside the box!

• We can have a template box for people to link to, that will update automatically when original box is updated (template page is called MIT Libraries LibGuides Tools).  We should think about what we want on this template page.
• Style sheets can only do so much: can't change size between boxes, but we can change fonts, header, footer; Darcy's working on moving last updated date, hiding page subtitle.  She'll tell us when she makes changes in CSS, and we can give her feedback.
• How Vera Database Description project fits in:
  • From Vera MultiSearch page of topics, we can link to LibGuides research guides, which will have the list of databases.  Librarians could still customize list how they wanted, and also have a full list maintained centrally.  Marion could start to create pages for every subject, and when we have the training, we could give librarians the option.  (We'd link from Vera Multisearch > Databases by Subject, and call it "Research Guides by Subject"?)  For something like GIS, would we link to the html page, or the LibGuides?
  • We need to rethink the concept of Vera...  Some people may want to have 2 different pages; is it going to be just a list of databases, or is this going to be more. 
  • Not just subjects: can be course pages, publication types pages;  we can call all of them research guides. 
• Will be an optional thing; Don't have to have new guide by Fall!  Marion can still make list of databases to get started by Summer.
• Nicole may reteach "Writing for the Web."  We should keep these guidelines in mind when creating best practices.

Asides:

• Think about what to do when there are 2+ librarians.
• May want to replace virtual browsery with a LibGuides page.

Agenda: 

• Review charge, and make sure it's realistic.
• Discuss timeline
• Next steps
  • Get everyone trained on LibGuides (Thursday, 5/15); go through admin features, etc.
  • Everyone make a sample research guide by next week.  We'll use these to start discussing what works (and what doesn't!).
  • Think about best practices.  Look at current subject guide web guidelines & writing for the web for inspiration.