LibGuides Standards and Best Practices

• Make use of the LibGuides link checker feature twice a year to ensure that all your links are active.
• Before the beginning of each semester, review all guides to see if there are any resources (databases, ebooks, etc), that can be added or removed from the guide.
• Each time a course is being offered, allow the instructor to review any relevant course guides so that he or she can suggest any updates.
• Promptly remove database links to resources that we no longer subscribe to.

Check your guide on multiple devices with different screen sizes to ensure that your guide functions well and important content is still on top.

Shrinking and expanding your browser window can show a similar effect of how your guide will appear on a smaller or narrower screen.

When identical material is called for in multiple guides at the box or page level, consider re-using entire boxes or pages.

Also consider reusing content and links from your colleagues' guides. Look for timely, properly formatted and accessible content to reuse.

See this reusing assets page for more information.

Guide authors should continue to monitor new and changed resources for inclusion in their Research Guides.  Keep the guides in mind whenever a new database (or a link change) is announced, when new editions of books (especially reference books) become available; etc.  

If a guide is no longer relevant or was created for a class that is no longer taught then consider changing its status it to private. 

A private guide is preferable to an unpublished guide because anyone with the guide URL will still have access to it. Unpublished guides are hidden from all users.