Using Notion to Organize Library Projects

Improve your library's project management with Notion

Posted on November 11, 2024 in Blog Posts

A library’s list of available databases and subscriptions meets several critical needs on an academic library website. When it became evident to University of Nevada–Las Vegas librarians that an update to our Springshare-hosted A-Z database list was needed, we were faced with a project management challenge. Over a dozen subject liaison librarians would need to consult a complex, prescriptive list of guidelines in order to review and rewrite several hundred database descriptions. Moreover, access to the live database backend is limited and we wanted to roll out the changes all at once instead of piecemeal as they were completed. The last time we went through this process, we opted for a paper-based system over asking librarians to edit an enormous and unwieldy spreadsheet, but in 2024, there were better platforms available online for managing tasks like this.

Why we used Notion for project management

After contemplating and rejecting workflows based in our university’s Google Suite, we took a look at some of the free and freemium web-based workspace management tools like Airtable and Notion. With its free education plan and its ability to combine multiple relational databases with web content management tools, Notion turned out to be a good option for us to set up an interface where librarians could review and edit database descriptions and metadata in a form-type view with ready access to our data dictionary and guidelines.

Notion’s content building blocks enabled us to create a template with our elaborate instructions organized behind collapsible headings. We set up a structure that displays each database entry on a separate page alongside instructions for revision, providing a clean interface and easy access to models and examples for the librarian editors. 

Project management features made it easy for us to assign each entry to the appropriate person and track whether a revision is complete, in progress, or not yet begun. The system is published online with a private URL and each librarian is authorized with guest access to Notion, which permits them to enter their revisions and have them updated in the Notion-hosted database. When completed, we’ll be able to export the data back out for a final review before reuploading them to our Springshare system.

---

🌟 Subscribe to the LibTech Insights newsletter for weekly roundups and bonus content, including: 

• Turn on the Computer, Turn off the Ageism: Empowering Older Adult Technology Use
• Library Tech Highlights from ACRL’s State of Academic Libraries Report
• Social Media and Scholarship as Two Sides of the Same Coin

---

Other benefits and uses of Notion

Rapidly deployed updates to the platform have kept us on our toes. Between the conception and execution of this project, Notion rolled out an AI tool and new form, chart, and layout options. The Notion AI’s “improve writing” feature may prove useful in helping us format and phrase our database descriptions without too much library jargon. 

In the wider world, Notion is marketed and used as a hosted workspace for managing projects and businesses. Automations and integrations have been developed for seamless use with calendaring and mail platforms, Slack, and other online communication and organization standbys. 

There is definitely a learning curve, but cues within the interface make many tasks easy to figure out on the fly, and the Notion 101 series of video tutorials gave us the foundation to work with the database and template features we needed. A robust community of Notion users, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts has also created a large and expanding library of help videos and free or purchasable templates to get a rapid start organizing and documenting any kind of project. 

---

🔥 Sign up for LibTech Insights (LTI) new post notifications and updates.

🧠 Join us for a free webinar on AI literacy in libraries.

✍️ Interested in contributing to LTI? Send an email to Daniel P. at Choice with your topic idea.

Related Posts