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

What is content governance?

Content governance is a system that helps determine how content gets created and published. Content governance often involves guidelines, resources, and systems that help content creators manage their content.

What does content governance involve?

• Schedules for creating, maintaining, and publishing content
• Style guidelines to help ensure content follows best practices in writing for the web and accessibility standards
• Understanding users and audiences to ensure content is relevant and useful for them

What are the benefits of content governance?

Content governance can provide structures to help support content creators and can be a way for us to ensure that our LibGuides are up-to-date, accessible, and relevant to different audiences.

Before each semester:

• Review existing guides to ensure links still function and the content is up-to-date and relevant
• Make a plan for any new or updated guides that you plan to publish
  • Remember to follow the LibGuide Publishing Checklist and the Guide Maintenance guidelines
• Follow the Canvas Integration steps for guides you will be integrating into a Canvas site

After each semester:

Update the status of your guides as needed

• Set your guide to Private if you want people to still be able to access the content. Private guides are removed from the list of guides, which helps prevent clutter each semester.
• Set your guide to Unpublished if you no longer need the guide and/or would like to extensively edit the guide before republishing it.
• Keep your guide Published if the guide is not tied to a specific semester (i.e. a Subject Guide).

See our Calendars for the latest dates and guide maintenance schedules, including when to change the status of guides, when to review broken link reports, and other maintenance activities.

See sample Calendar options

Creating a new guide

• What is this content for and who is the audience?
• Does this content belong in a Guide? Does it fit into one of our current categories?
• Are there existing guides where this content could live, or does it belong in a new guide?
• Are there examples from other institutions or here at Emory that you can use for inspiration?
• Plan your content using the checklists and resources on this Best Practices guide

Maintaining a guide

• When did you last update this guide?
• Use the checklists, resources, schedules, and suggestions to ensure your guide is up-to-date and in-line with standards. What revisions are needed?
• How extensive are the revisions? Do you need to change the status of the guide to work on it more extensively?
• If the revisions are extensive, would it be easier to start fresh with a new guide?

Sunsetting a guide

• How old is the guide?
• How many views and visits has it received recently?
• Does the guide require extensive revisions?
• Is the guide meeting an intended purpose or goal?

When creating and updating guides, consider the following areas:

• Audience - who is this guide for and is the content relevant and appropriate for the intended audience?
• Navigation - is the guide easy to navigate and can the intended audience utilize things like tabs and headers to find what they need?
• Tone and Language - is the language clear and free of jargon?
• Information Structure - is the content within Boxes on the Guide easy to read and follow?
• Accessibility - does the Guide follow web accessibility standards and best practices?

Use the style checklist and the peer review rubric to help you consider different aspects of your guide and ensure your guide is user-friendly.

We will add relevant reports and assessment information here as it becomes available to help guide authors gain insights into the different audiences of our guides.

University of Illinois Website Style Guides - includes detailed style guides, writing for the web best practices, and project planning documentation

University of Houston Libraries web content style guide - includes examples and best practices of writing for the web

University of Connecticut Libraries LibGuides Standards and Best Practices - example of a detailed content governance guide for LibGuides

Boston College LibGuides Best Practices - another example of a full content governance guide

Harvard Library Writing Guide - example of a style guide with tips on writing, tone, and style

Butler LibGuides Accessibility Standards - example of accessibility standards and guidelines for LibGuides