Creating a guide:
Guide text should be in plain language. Plain language (also called plain writing or plain English) is communication an audience can understand the first time they read or hear it. See https://www.plainlanguage.gov/about/definitions/.
It is helpful if every guide has at least two editors.
To create a new guide:
LibGuides Home > LibGuides Shortcuts > + Create Guide; or
LibGuides Home > Content > Guides > + Create Guide
Choose Layout:
Start fresh and select a template. Use Assets whenever possible. When mapping to content from an existing guide, local or from the LibGuide community, obtain permission from the original guide owner.
Navigation:
Use side navigation tabs if there are more than five topic areas to make the guide easier to use.
Template:
Select the System Default template, the Tabs layout (displays the pages/tabs at the top), or the Side-Nav layout (displays the tabs on the side).
Guide Type:
Select a guide type: General Purpose, Course, Subject, Topics, Internal, Template.
Font Size and Type:
All guides should be published with the default font and size. To emphasize a section, use heading H3-H6 for section titles.
Linking:
Use the "Add/Reorder" menu to ad links in guides. This will ensure that links save as assets in LibGuides,
Assets:
See the Assets section in this Guide for link guidelines, etc.
Graphics:
Use public domain or Creative Commons licensed graphics
ALT text should be added to all graphics.
Style Manual:
Spell out all acronyms when first used on a page. When content is reorganized, check this order sequence.
The Guide Name (or title) will appear at the top of the guide and in all lists of guides throughout your site. Keep it succinct, yet meaningful, to make your guides easy to find. Review other committee guides.
Naming conventions, for conferences etc., year or event first, keep this consistent.
Assign the guide to display within a group of users or do not assign to a group. If assigned to a group, the guide will inherit all attributes of that group (look and feel, publicly accessible vs. internal, etc.).Groups currently include:
• Cataloging
• General
• Government Information for Children
• State Agency Database Project
To create an additional group, please contact the Technology Committee.
Share Guide Content:
No: No one can copy this guide - in your own site (including you) or in the Community.
Internal: Allow other authors in your system to copy your guides, but not the Community.
Community: Your published guides can be copied by other authors in your system and by authors in other sites in the Community. Private guides are not listed in the Community, but can be copied if you know the URL.
Each guide you create will have its own unique ID number. By default, that ID number will be used to give your guide a unique URL. You can customize this by giving it a friendly URL. This allows you to replace the portion of the URL following your domain name with your own custom string.
To change a guide's friendly URL, edit your guide. There are two ways to do this:
Go to Content > Guides and click on the name or Edit () icon for the guide.
Or, from the LibGuides dashboard, use the Edit Existing Guide option in the LibGuides Shortcuts box.
Edit a guide's friendly URL:
Click on the pencil () icon next to the Friendly URL field at the top of the guide.
Clicking the pencil icon to edit the friendly URL
In the window that appears, add, edit, or remove the text for the guide's friendly URL.
The friendly URL may only contain alphanumeric characters, dashes, forward-slashes, and underscores.
While uppercase letters are supported, we recommend using lowercase letters to keep things simple.
​Click the Save button.
You can reassign a friendly URL to a new guide (if a guide is significantly reworked for example), so that links to the guide will not be impacted.
See the Accessibility guidelines in this Guide.
Individual groups/project should address continuity. See the Ownership/Continuity section.