Research Guides Standards and Best Practices

Use these tips for giving a short and descriptive name for pages and content boxes.

• Jargon: avoid library jargon in naming pages.  Favor action words.
• Specific Titles: be specific in naming pages. “Encyclopedias” or "Overviews" are more meaningful to students than “Reference Tools”.
• Short Titles: keep page titles short – they should clearly reflect the content in that page.
• Use "&": use "&" instead of "and" in titles.
• Capitalization: use appropriate capitalization.
• Vagueness: Avoid vague terms like "other" or "additional resources".

Home page

• Better not to title it “Home.” Something like “Getting Started” or "Overview" is better.
• "Start Here" is another good title if your guide walks a user through a process. 

Links to resources should be added as link assets.

• Give each link a description. Shorter descriptions are generally better and in keeping with the goal of less text-heavy guides
• Always have the description display beneath item title. Never have it hidden behind a pop up button as this isn't accessible.
• Reuse link assets as often as possible. This makes it easier to batch update.
• Order link lists by relevance.
• Always link to the specific page that will be needed by the user; refrain from linking to the main page of a large and potentially confusing website.

If you add links directly into a rich-text box then those links can't be checked by the Spingshare link checker, have their use counted,  or be reused through the content item repository.

Instead, use link or database assets to link to resources from your guides.

If you must use links inside a rich-text box then check that these links open in a separate page or tab.

• If using the link button in the rich text editor be sure to set the target to New Window (_blank) on the target tab.
• Check link code in the Source view and make sure all anchor tags have target="_blank" inside.

Links should make sense if the linked text is read by itself. Screen reader users may choose to read only the links on a web page. Avoid phrases like “click here” and “more”.

• Unclear link text: Go to this US Government source for comprehensive homeowner data by clicking here.
• Clear link text: The US Government provides comprehensive homeowner data.

In addition to text based resources consider adding podcasts, videos and other multimedia. They can add interest and appeal to guides as well as useful information.

It's important to adhere to copyright standards when using multimedia.

Every guide should be assigned appropriate subjects and tags that specify the content of the guide.

• Tagging helps to organize guides and makes them searchable.
• Add tags that are appropriate for the content of your guide.
• New tags can be created but you should also reuse tags as much as possible.

The profile box should only be on the “Getting Started” (Home) page of your guide, in the top right column.

For research or course guides the title of the profile box should read your title such as  Research Data Services Librarian or Engineering & Physical Sciences Librarian.

Other guides should have a profile box titled Guide Author or your title.

The profile box should include

• office address
• email address
• phone number
• photo

Profile photos should be a high-quality photo of head and shoulders which is recognizable and reasonably current.

Try to have as much of the important content of the guide clearly visible without having to scroll down. Many users will only read what’s near the top of the screen. If need for scrolling is excessive, consider reorganizing the material.

Friendly URLs make it easy to quickly see and understand the purpose of the page. For example, /g=46515&p=365289 is not intuitive but /libguidesintro/thebasics carries meaning.

• Friendly URLs should be added to all pages.
• Should always be lowercase.
• Use letters, numbers dashes and underscores.
• Don't use spaces! Use either dashes, underscores or combine into one word.
• Limit to one or two words.

The friendly URLs can be set in the following ways:

• Guide: click the pencil next to the URL label
• Page: click the pencil icon in the bordered box next to the Page URL label. This must be set for every page.

Avoid subpages as much as possible. Before putting content in a subpage, think about whether it can be put in a separate box on the parent page or homepage without making that page too long.

The organization of pages should be consistent. Subjects and formats should not be mixed. For example, if one has an Education guide and one tab is “Educational Psychology” and another “Journal Articles” students may be confused how to find an article on educational psychology.