Research Guides 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 to the guide.
• If you're using a guide for a course, each time the course is being offered, allow the instructor to review so they can suggest updates.
• Promptly remove database links to resources that we no longer subscribe to.

• Check your guides 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 mobile device.

• When identical material is called for in multiple guides at the box or page level, consider reusing entire boxes or pages.
• Also consider reusing content and links from your colleagues' guides. Look for timely, properly formatted and accessible content to reuse.

Monitor your guides for new and changed resources.

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A private guide is preferable to an unpublished guide because anyone with the guide URL will still have access to it. Unpublished guides are hidden from all users.