Guidelines

General:

Follow existing web guidelines whenever possible, including use of color and recommended fonts.

You can use LibGuides to create any sort of research guide: publication types, subject pages, databases cheatsheets, course pages, etc.

Publication type, subject page, course page, database cheatsheet

Setting up your profile:

Label the profile box (and all boxes!) wisely:

• Keep default "My Profile"
• Ask Us
• Subject Specialist
• Dewey Library (or other library name)
• Questions?

Use your Kerberos ID for your profile shortcut.

Only include your name in the "Display Name" field.

Staff photo use guidelines should be followed, if you choose to use a photo.  No avatars!  Hide the photo box on each guide, if you don't use a picture.   

Use "friendly" URLs (shortcut URLs) for all pages.

http://libguides.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/oceanography

Adding chat contact info is optional.  People are welcome to embed Meebo boxes, but color should match with our color scheme (black, meebo, mac, meebome).

http://libguides.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/mites

Contact information should always display in top right.  You can delete the default profile box, as long as you add a new box with contact info. 

http://libguides.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/materials

Page layout:

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No set limit to number of boxes allowed on page, but if it looks cluttered or if scrolling is excessive, creator should consider reorganizing or using Dreamweaver

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2 and 3 column layouts are both usable.

Set a maximum of 5 or 6 tabs per page.  Subtabs may be used, but should be kept as simple as possible and labeled wisely.  Don't link tabs to non-LibGuides URLs.

http://libguides.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/humgeneral

When given an option, have links open in a new tab/window.

Choose to "link to" or "copy" wisely.  Any time the content should be maintained by one person, use link to (ex., search box on template page). 

http://libguides.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/tools

Other features:

You can turn comments off, or leave them on.  Comments are centrally set to be "moderated" by the page editors. 

Don't use tags feature.

http://libguides.dartmouth.edu

Images can be hosted on the Libraries server for now; there may be a better alternative in the future.

Making pages live:

Make sure to add a "friendly" shortcut URL for each page.  If you're making a test page, end the URL with "-test"

Add one or more subject categories per page.

Keep pages public or private.  Don't bother with unpublished.

No need to get approval to post pages.  Ask Marion if you need to add a link to your guide.