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Research guides: Best practices for design & accessibility

Do I need to make a LibGuide?

It can be hard to resist the urge to create a LibGuide for every new or exciting topic. Ask yourself the following:
  • Is a LibGuide the best place for this information, or would it be better suited to an FAQ in LibAnswers, the library blog, or elsewhere?
  • Can I realistically see myself maintaining this new LibGuide?
  • Is this LibGuide a make-work project?
  • Do we need a Dal-specific LibGuide on this topic or can we link to a guide that already exists at another university? (yes, we did ask ourselves this question before creating this guide!)

Course guides vs. subject guides

Several LibGuides researchers have recommended course-specific guides over (or in addition to) subject-based guides.

  • "Librarians tend to structure library guides according to the research process and around academic disciplines, while students tend to think more in terms of courses, coursework and the products of research" (Castro-Gessner et al., as cited in Bergstrom-Lynch, 2019, p. 208)
  • Creating course guides will allow you to be more specific in your content choices, rather than treating the guide like a dumping ground
  • Results from Conrad and Stevens' 2019 study suggested that it "might be easier for students to find guides that are explicitly associated with their courses, through either the guides’ titles or other searchable metadata, than to find and understand the relevance of general research guides" (p. 72)
  • Through an analysis of browser search terms, Castro Gessner and co-authors (2015) found that 39 per cent of searches performed by their users contained course-related terminology (e.g., course name or code, professor name, etc.) 
  • Reeb and Gibbons (2004) attested through their research that "undergraduate students’ mental model is one focused on courses and coursework, rather than disciplines. This mental model is not well suited to library subject guides that require an understanding of disciplines and do not impart the needed personalization or customization" (p. 126)

Instructional content

Dal guides are now referred to on the website and elsewhere as "Research Guides" rather than "Subject Guides." The purpose of the guides is to help students with research rather than provide a subject overview. Add value to your guides by providing some instructional guidance rather than simply resource links.