Research Guides
A Research Guide is defined as a LibGuide created to assist library users in finding and accessing resources for research purposes. Most of these guides are created by the Research & Learning librarians and are used to support library instruction efforts. These fall into three categories:
- Subject Guide: Resources on a particular area of study (e.g., Art & Design, Biology, History).
- Course Guide: Resources for use in a specific course (e.g., ESFR 5013, GUID 5133, POL 5423).
- Topic Guide: Resources on a particular topic; how to find or use a particular resource type (e.g., Artificial Intelligence Tools, Plagiarism, Zine Collection).
Content Boxes
Most pages of the library website use floating boxes, which display the content without a border and a built-in heading. Research Guides keep the box borders visible to provide a visual distinction from the general information pages.
The built-in headings for these content boxes are level 2, so any additional headings within a box should start with level 3.
Naming Conventions
Guide titles, page titles, and friendly URLs should follow the general naming conventions, with the following additions:
- Subject Guides created for particular departments or programs should have titles that match the name of the relevant department or program.
- Friendly URLs for subjects should not be abbreviations (e.g., use /psychology instead of /psych).
- Course Guide titles should include both the course code and the name of the course (e.g., POL 5423 Public Executive Leadership).
- Course Guide friendly URLs should use the course code only (e.g., /pol5423).
Guide Template
Use this template when creating a new Subject or Course Guide:
