Disaster Library SOS - Is it better to start from scratch?

Marcea Say

Whenever users go into the library, they can't find anything. The tagging structure makes no sense, there is way too much irrelevant content and the owners listed are unrecognizable. Is it better to remove everything and start over or is there a good way to get everything organized internally?

Tara Kolinsky

I've seen several different approaches here:

1. Clean up what you have - This can involve a lot of steps and be time-consuming, but allows you to retain what you already have. I usually recommend starting with the answer library insights report. Start by looking at content that is unused. This can be a great place to focus first. (The report is interactive, so if you click on the unused content slice, it will take you to that content.) From there, you can use filters to find unused content that is also old (maybe hasn't been updated in the past year or created in the last year). That content is ripe for removal or archival. You may also want to consider content that has been used but hasn't been updated in a long time as it MIGHT be outdated (but not always). Next, look for duplicative content using the duplicate report. Those dupes can be merged into single Q/A pairs through the de-dupe process. From here, you can start organizing the existing content - I like to use section names to give me a head start here (for example, if something came from an RFP section called security parameters, I might apply a tag to this content of "security". Once you get the content organized, you can start looking at different buckets of content (tags, custom fields, etc.) to find similar content that can be further consolidated. Once this has been organized and cleaned up, you can start assigning owners and review cycles to ensure it stays current.
2. Archive or wipe it out, and start from scratch - this can be tempting in this scenario but can also introduce the same issues that caused the library to become a problem to begin with. If you do go this route, find a few high-quality responses and use those to seed the new library.
3. Hybrid approach - sometimes, it is beneficial to move all existing content to a collection that only a small number of users have access to. As you use content and confirm its accuracy, it can be moved to the general library. This can help narrow down the content you are using actively while not fully losing any prior work that's been done.

Whichever direction you take, it will be very important to pay close attention to content organization and maintenance going forward to avoid repeating this issue in the future.