LibGuides Standards & How-to's

• Thoughtfully consider the topic and purpose of your guide and who the intended audience is.
• Consciously select the list of resources you provide, keeping in mind that the guide is a tool for starting the research process rather than an all-inclusive list of resources.

• Primary content should be placed in the right hand column with secondary content in the left column.
• Don’t bury the lead!  Highlight the most important information either by prominent placement or presenting listed items in order of importance rather than alphabetical.
• Divide your resources into tabs or individual boxes whenever possible.
• Only use brief blocks of text so that your guide is easy to visually scan.
• Consider your audience when creating tabs and sub-tabs.  Avoid overlong tab names, and complicated tiers.
• Course guides should be created as separate sub-tabs of the “Course Guides” tab under the main Subject Guide for that academic field. The landing page for Course Guides should not be blank. Consider creating a linked list of Course Guides.

• The Subject Guide Home Page should include:

• Left hand column:
  • Profile Box

• Right hand column:
  • “Quick Links” Box with links to the Guide tabs
  •  “Best Bets” Box that highlights a few highly sought resources that most users are seeking
  • Additional content can be included beneath these content boxes only if you feel it is absolutely necessary, otherwise put in “Advanced Resources” tab.

• All Subject Guide Home Pages should not include:
  • Any other images or video content (beyond profile)
  • New Books or other RSS feeds including social feeds
  • Polls
  • External University Links

• The purpose of the profile picture is to present a friendly but professional face to the Miami community and to the public.  These photos may be how students first “meet” and come to recognize you in person.  Each guide owner should use a headshot taken by Miami’s professional photographers. If you have had one taken as a result of promotion in the past 10 years, you may use that image. Otherwise contact photography staff to schedule an appointment. Photos take place in 115C Williams and take no more than 10 minutes.
• The photo size is 225x275
• Your profile box should be in the top left column of the home page of Subject Guides.

• Consider including a range of call numbers for those interested in browsing the physical collection.
• Map your database links to the appropriate link within Assets.  This list is updated centrally so your links will automatically update when there are changes.  Using these links guarantees that users from on and off-campus will be prompted for proxy authentication.
• When setting your guide to Published, please give it a friendly URL.

When copying and pasting content into a Guide, it is highly recommended that you paste the content into Notepad first, then copy and paste out of Notepad into a Guide. This removes any proprietary formatting from the original source.

If you prefer not to use Notepad, after pasting your content into the Guide, highlight the pasted text in your Guide and use the Remove Format icon to reset to default formatting.

• The format is a 25/75 layout
• Font Style is Arial
• Font Color is the Automatic choice in the text editor.

• Follow the LibGuides Standards.  A basic consistency between Guides makes them more user-friendly for those with disabilities.
• Instruct students that they can link to an accessible version of the LibGuide.
• All images should contain ALT tags.
• Videos included in your guide should be captioned.
• When pasting outside content, remove formatting.
• Screenshots and other graphic elements should include text equivalents.
• Avoid using “click here” and instead be more descriptive so it is clear where the user will be navigating to.
• Check that your Guide is compliant by using the free WAVE tool at http://wave.webaim.org
• For further instruction, go to Springshare’s Guide on accessibility, http://help.springshare.com/accessibility
• Another great resource is WC3’s Web Accessibility Initiative at http://www.w3.org/WAI/

• Consistently promote the use of guides during instruction and reference interactions.  Refer to them as they are listed on the web site, “Subject & Course Guides” and provide the direct URL to a specific guide when applicable.
• Share links to your guides with applicable faculty members and invite them to link to your guide through niikha (new LMS).

• Review your guides on a regular basis, at least twice per year.  Update content, check functionality, confirm links, etc.
• Evaluate the usage statistics of your guide.  If usage is low, consider revising your content or more actively using promotion techniques.
• If a link has not been accessed 5+ times in a year, it is not of value to users.  Remove it to maintain a relevant, useful guide.

Here is a PDF if you would like to print a copy of the Standards:

Here are some resources that were used to inform our decisions about LibGuides standards and usability.