Skip to Main Content
 
 

Emory's LibGuide on LibGuides: Best Practices & Guidelines for Creating and Maintaining LibGuides

An internal guide for Emory Libraries.

Guide Maintenance Calendar (General)

Before the semester

Ensure links are working for Guides you plan to publish

Review the Publishing Checklist and Style Guide best practices

Consider a peer review for new or heavily updated Guides

Embed your Guide into Canvas
After the semester

Change the status of your guides to Private or Unpublished as needed

Flag guides that need updates and make a plan for revisions
Summer maintenance

Review broken link reports

Review guide usage reports

Checking for Broken Links

Each of us is responsible for maintaining links we create in a LibGuide.

Using Link assets, instead of creating a link in a Rich Text/HTML box, makes it easy to update broken or obsolete URLs. Once it has been updated in that one location, all the places where that link shows are also updated. 

LibGuides has a built-in link checker that can help find broken addresses in the Links assets. Unfortunately, the link checker doesn't allow you to find broken links embedded in Rich Text/HTML copy.

At the time of this writing, we don't require you to use the Links assets in your guides, but it does make updating bad links simpler and keeps them in context. In the end, it is always better for you to update your guides regularly to make sure the content is relevant for your students and faculty.

Hiding/Retiring Unused LibGuides

  • LibGuide View Settings for (Recent) Past Courses 

  • Categories are: Published, Private, Unpublished  

  • At end of each semester, the TF will send out a reminder to make that semester’s LibGuides private or unpublished
     

  • Many of us make a course LibGuide private – in case course instructor wants to use the url even when course is not active – esp. if course will be taught again.
     

  • Questions to ask when assigning view settings for a LibGuide:

  • Is course taught on a regular basis – or is it a unique offering?  

  • Is the instructor including LibGuide URL in syllabus without notifying the librarian?

  • How old is the guide?

  • How many views and visits has it received recently? Check Guide Statistics. 

  • Does the guide require extensive revisions?

  • Is the guide meeting an intended purpose or goal?