Lessons Learned from Migration
Migrating to LibGuides Version 2
Peace Ossom Williamson
peace@uta.edu
About UT Arlington Libraries
Version 1 of LibGuides


Over 110 employees, including over 40 librarians
Over 650 guides, including






Subject Guides
Course Guides
Topic Guides
“About the Library” Guides
No systematic use of link assets
No CMS
For more info . . .
peace@uta.edu
Migration Schedule
Teaching & Learning Advisory Group
August 1:
Go live with v2
May 29:
Migrate content
May 14:
Learn about v2
For more info . .
peace@uta.edu
Description

Step 1: Learn the changes Springshare made between
v1 and v2 LibGuides



“Coming soon!”
Features worked intermittently or not at all, at times
Step 2: Make decisions based on these changes
quickly so guide owners could begin to implement


Changes were made (and sometimes unmade) as we
progressed
No time to wait for quick fixes
For more info . .
libguides.uta.edu/migration
Description

Step 3: Communicate through email and a libguide



Emails were regularly sent out to guide owners to keep them
up-to-date
A migration libguide was housed at
libguides.uta.edu/migration
Step 4: Host in-house workshops


As soon as something really new and cumbersome was
required of guide owners
To cover a list of new projects
For more info . .
libguides.uta.edu/migration
Changes
General
• Homepage boxes
• Popular
• Featured
• No admin for
• Assets
• Widgets/API
• “Librarian” and
“regular” accounts
will all be “regular”
• Asset subjects
• Image manager
folders
For more info . .
libguides.uta.edu/migration
Guide Level
Steps Taken
• Guide types
• Layout templates
• “Side nav” template
• Top/bottom boxes
• Assorted content in
one box
• New box types
• Tabbed Boxes
• Gallery Boxes
• Guide review
• No feedback or user
submitted links
• Run report of
unsupported boxes
• Delete, delete,
delete
• Replace DB A-Z List
& tag subjects
• Replace box code
• Replace links to nonfriendly URLs
During Migration
LEFT BEHIND:
Site banners; custom
HEAD, footer, and
analytics code;
LibAnswers; TOC; surveys
For more info . .
libguides.uta.edu/migration
MIGRATING FORWARD:
User accounts, guides, stats,
images, assets, subjects, tags,
friendly URLs, E-Reserves, beta
site content, etc.
LibGuide Administrators




Determine which links in v1 should become
databases in v2 OR import a database spreadsheet.
Customizations in v1 will not work the same in v2 as it
did previously, so start fresh
Run reports to find out boxes that will be unsupported,
users without guides, or guides with “stale content” or
low hits
Determine and delete unwanted guides
For more info . . .
peace@uta.edu
Post-Migration Cleanup


Establish users who can edit all guides
Modify






CSS
Banner/Header code
Homepage (template for CMS libraries)
Check widgets (some may only work in preview mode)
Check disruptive code and combine boxes into one
Use new box types (tabbed/gallery)
For more info . .
libguides.uta.edu/migration
Go Live!


Can involve some downtime
Process




Move LGv1 to new site
Custom domain? Keep IT in the loop to have DNS changed
to have custom domain redirect to www.springshare.com
Login to v1 and submit the go-live request
Look for broken links or anything out of place

Use Search & Replace to update beta stems to final URLs
DNS?? What’s that? Ask your IT Department!
THANK YOU!
For more info . .
peace@uta.edu