LibGuides Instructions and Guidelines

Information should live primarily in one place for ease of updates and consistency. If that place is on the UO Libraries website, please link to the location on the website rather than duplicating the content. 

**Website content may be duplicated on Course Guides if it's necessary for librarians to teach from. (e.g., VPN instructions)

Before creating new links, book records, or widgets (called Assets in LibGuides), check the Reuse Existing. . . tab in the Add content menus to see if that item already exists. If so, reuse the existing asset rather than copying it or creating duplicate content.

If adding a link to a library resource that has been purchased:

• If it's on the Databases A-Z list, add it as a Database
• Consider linking to the Primo record instead of directly to the resource
• If linking directly to the resource, check the proxy checkbox when adding the link.

Avoid embedding links in Rich Text/HTML boxes when possible.

There are several reasons to use the Link Asset tool to create links: 

1. Usage statistics are available for every Link Asset at the system and Guide level
2. LibGuide's automatic Link Checker only works on Link Assets. Non-Link Assets will need to be checked manually.
3. Link Assets used across guides can be updated in bulk from the Asset library as opposed to updating each link location 

If the link goes to a resource that requires proxied access from off-campus, make sure to click the Use Proxy setting and use the unproxied form of the URL. If using a Primo link, you don't need the proxy since it's already built in.

The Database A-Z list is managed by Collections Services. Use the Alma/Primo//Website Help system in IRIS to request additions or changes to the list.

Use the Add Database content option to reuse collections listed on the Database A-Z page in your guide.

To add a book from the catalog, first check the "Reuse Existing Book" tab to see if it's already in use and you can reuse the asset in your own guide. In general, we do not recommend creating Assets for books outside the UO collection.

Please have information in the following fields to maintain a consistent look & feel:

Title
Author
URL: Link to Primo (if there are both eBook and print copies link to the ebook here unless there's a good reason to prefer print). Make sure to use the "Link to This Item" URL from the Primo record, not the URL bar.
Call Number: For print books, put the call number here with the location(s) in parentheses. For ebooks, say ebook.
Publication Date: Year only. If publication dates auto-populate incorrectly, replace with correct date.

• Descriptions are optional, and should be no more than 3-5 sentences. Publisher descriptions will need to be shortened.
• Book cover images are optional
• ISBNs are optional

Examples of print and ebook entries:

When adding text to HTML boxes, do not copy/paste from Word or Outlook as it messes up the formatting. If you want to copy/paste into a LibGuides box copy/paste the text into notepad first and then copy/paste from there into LibGuide.