Educational Resources from Government Agencies: A GIC Guide

General Best Practices for GIC (Government Information for Children)

See main Best Practices guide by Tech Committee first.

General

1. Anything in General GODORT Best Practices does not need to be repeated here.

2. GIC landing page

   1. Have a GIC landing page rather than delve right into guides?
   2. Keep it short and link out to detailed information
   3. About
      1. What is GIC, mission, Policies and Procedure Manual (PPM)
      2. LInk to this: https://www.ala.org/rt/godort/ppm

3. Guide List

   1. Easier to maintain if we all assign to GIC group and use the Guides List to generate list
      1. Already created. See https://godort.libguides.com/c.php?g=948799&p=6841796#s-lg-box-wrapper-34863916
   2. Guide list added to GIC template.

4. Membership

   1. More details in Continuity section
   2. List
   3. Link to resources
      1. Resources may be public or private.
      2. Members Resource guide https://godort.libguides.com/GIC/Members can be moved, edited, etc.
      3. Create checklists
         1. For creating guides
         2. For maintaining guides

5. Target audience - remember who it is

   1. Our Target audience is educators

6. Style Sheet

   1. GODORT wide

   2. GIC Specific

      1. Language, Acronyms
         1. Always spell out an acronym first time using on a page.
         2. Repeat on subsequent pages
         3. US or USA rather than America, when possible
         4. Link to a GODORT (or other organization) statement on language - eps. On history and social studies guides.

Documentation and Records

1. ALA Web site

2. GODORT

   1. LibGuides

   2.  Google Groups account at godortgic@googlegroups.com.

3. GIC GoogleGroups

   1. We have a gmail account which is godortgic@gmail.com. 
   2. Associated with this account is access to Google Drive where we will store all GIC documents and working documents. 
   3. We also have a Google Groups account at godortgic@googlegroups.com. All email communication should include the godortgic@gmail.com and the godortgic@googlgroups.com so there is a record of the communication that future committee members can read and access.

4. The committee chair and another designated committee member will have access to the Google accounts. 

   1. The committee chair will upload documents to the account and share access to other members in the group via a link when necessary. 
   2. The committee chair will also be responsible for removing and adding members to the Google Groups account.

5. GODORT Minutes page https://www.ala.org/rt/godort/minutes

   1. The Chair will upload meeting minutes to the GODORT Minutes page.

6. LibGuide history will be maintained.

   1. Hopefully, this will fall under main GODORT Best Practices.
   2. We will maintain notes for future members and volunteers.
      1. These can be hidden boxes on a guide or in Members Resource guide.
      2. Explain why we have individual subject guides pulled into one main guide.
   3. Past content creators/page editors will be acknowledged to the best of our knowledge.

Communication

1. See also Documentation and Records; Continuity

2. Email

   1. Gmail, googleGroups

      1. We have a gmail account which is godortgic@gmail.com. 
      2. Associated with this account is access to Google Drive where we will store all GIC documents and working documents. 
      3. We also have a Google Groups account at godortgic@googlegroups.com.
      4. All email communication should include the godortgic@gmail.com and the godortgic@googlgroups.com so there is a record of the communication that future committee members can read and access.

   2. ALA Connect

      1. We don’t use this as much because many of our volunteers are not ALA members.
      2. We should remember to include ALA Connect when email is open to all of GODORT.
          

Continuity

1. See also Documentation; Continuity

2. Membership

   1. List members and terms

3. Volunteers

   1. List volunteers
   2. define what, if anything, is different for volunteers
   3. We can make volunteers one level and GIC members another level - or keep everyone equal.

4. Accounts

   1. The committee chair will also be responsible for removing and adding members to the Google Groups account.
      1. Because GIC has members and volunteers, we may be more flexible than other committees/groups.
   2. The Committee Chair and/or LibGuide Admins will be responsible for adding or removing accounts from LibGuide GIC group https://godort.libguides.com/gic
      1. The Tech Committee will be responsible for continuing or deleting accounts from GODORT LibGuides.
      2. GIC Admins may make LibGuide accounts for new members/volunteers, with approval from the Chair.
         1. This was told to Jenny during a Tech Committee meeting.
   3. At the end of the chair’s term, the outgoing chair will be added to the group if they need to be added and will be given all necessary passwords and access to manage the Google accounts. 
   4. The incoming committee chair will remove and add members from the Google accounts at the start of each new year when the committee rosters change or when necessary should changes in membership occur. 
   5. The incoming chair will be made an admin for GIC group in LibGuides
   6. Removing people from GIC
      1. What will be criteria (other than person requests it)?
      2. Do we contact them prior to removal?
         1. Often their email no longer works.
      3. Admins may remove from GIC with Chair’s approval. They will contact Tech Committee of the change.
   7. Once a year, Chair will review GIC LibGuide Admins - confirm they are still active.
   8. Following Tech Committee’s Best Practices - Once a year the Chair (or their designee) will contact everyone with assets in GIC guides to see if they are still active with us. Chair, or a GIC LibGuide Admin, will adjust GIC group editing permissions.
      1. IF we have volunteers at a different account level (LibGuides), then at the end of a member’s term, the Chair or Admin will change the account from member to volunteer.
   9. When someone leaves GIC, their LibGuide pages and assets will need to be reassigned.
      1. LibGuide Admins may make the changes, based on consensus
      2. If Tech Committee deletes an account, they can reassign all LibGuide content to another person. This should be done in consultation with all LibGuide groups.
          

Content

See Also Previous Sections

1. ALA site

2. Google

3. LibGuides

This section will focus mainly on GIC specific content, and not GODORT LibGuides in general.

Organization

1. All GIC guides assigned to GIC Group

   1. This allows for all published guides to automatically be included in our list of guides. https://godort.libguides.com/c.php?g=948799&p=6841796#s-lg-box-wrapper-34863916
   2. Page owner is responsible for adding this. Admins can also assign to GIC group.

2. One main guide, many topic guides

   1. We need to figure out a landing page, then change group home page.
   2. Topic guides will have redirect pages or re-used pages in the main GIC guide.
      1. We need to determine which is better for us and our users.
   3. We have many separate guides for a few reasons
      1. Original group who created web presence decided it was best.
      2. LibGuides limits the number of sub-page levels. 

3. As per recent 2022 meeting, page organization may vary, depending on length of page/guide

   1. Longer pages/guides should be organized to meet the needs of target audience.
   2. Teachers look for standards.
      1. Connie provided us with a link. We need to add  more to the Members Resource guide.

4. List of Guides

   1. Public list of published guides maintained with Group Guide list
   2. Members table of guides 
      1. Status of guide (published, private, unpublished, in the works for future publication)
      2. Page editors/owners. Current (past should be on the actual guide).
          

Maintenance

1. Once a quarter all GIC Committee members will manually check the links on their assigned pages to ensure the links direct to the appropriate page and are not broken.
   1. Manually checking is being used in lieu of the LinkChecker Tool since this tool functionality has changed. 
       

GODORT Best Practices

Tutorials specifically for GIC committee

These are some videos that were quickly made for a meeting. They are not the best quality - but they do help. Feel free to create a better video!

This guide was created from the work by the 2022-2023 GIC (Government Information for Children) Committee:

• Lauren Hall
• Marna Morland
• Jennifer Castle
• Jenny Groome
• Kamaria Nurse
• Perveen Rustomfram
• Patricia Siska
• Connie Williams