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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Getting Started with LibGuides

This is a help guide for University Library staff in best practices for creating LibGuides.

Types of Guide

Besides assigning Subjects to your guide to facilitate discovery, you should also select an appropriate "guide type" for it. This will aids users in browsing through guides on the LibGuides home page. See definitions of different guide types below: 

  • Subject/Topic Guide: guides that help users get started on a particular research subject or topic. (Note: this is the default option.)
  • Course Guide: guides specifically designed for a class.
  • How To Guide: guides on how to use library tools and find specific kinds of materials that are relevant to all users.
  • Internal or Template Guide: guides that are made for training, posting internal documentation, or collecting linked assets/content items. Internal or Template guides are only viewable by users who have accounts in the system.

Naming Conventions

When naming your guides, pages or content boxes, keep it short, descriptive, and consistent. Below are some tips:

  • Keep titles short and descriptive: make sure the title summarizes its content. If the page includes links to websites, books, and journals, make sure the link says Recommended Resources instead of just Websites.
  • Use Title case for titles: this means only using capital letters for the principal words. Articles, conjunctions, and prepositions do not get capital letters unless they start the title.
  • Avoid library jargon: always consider your audience. Students are less likely to click on something that they don't understand.
  • Establish a clear purpose and navigation for the guide. If you want students to progress through your guide in a certain way, consider the following:
    • Rename the homepage from "Home" to "Start Here" or "Get Started."
    • Adding Prev/Next buttons (find this option from Guide Edit bar> Guide Layout (Image) Menu.)
    • Adding Step 1, Step 2 helpers to the names of your guide pages.

Credit: some tips were reused from the Butler LibGuides: Standards & Best Practices: Layout & Design - Naming your Pages.