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Creating a LibGuide

This guide will help you design an accessible, user-friendly LibGuide.

Metadata

A friendly URL is easy to read and describes the content of the page. It helps users remember the URL more easily and can help describe the content they're about to visit.

Example: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/creatingalibguide

Note: Adding a friendly URL will not override the default URL, meaning that if an instructor included the original URL (with the string of characters and numbers) on a syllabus before you added a friendly URL, students would still be able to access the guide by using that original link.

Subjects, or Subject Associations (categories), provide a way to organize guides by topic, discipline, or subject area.

To add a subject association, click on the pencil icon () next to the Subjects section at the top of the guide under guide name and description.

Please note: These categories apply to all guides, not just Subject guides, AND to the A-Z List of Databases.

The following categories should be used only for A-Z listings and not on guides:

  • Career Information
  • Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging

For a complete list of Subject Associations (categories) that can be used for guides, see the file below.

Tags provide a way to organize by keywords and are primarily used to weight and filter search results. 

To add tags to a guide, click on the pencil icon () next to the Tags section at the top of the guide next to Subjects under the guide name and description.

Please note: You do not need to create tags for subjects listed in our Subject Associations. 

Assets

When adding a book to your guide, you'll want to add it using the Book from the Catalog asset option. Keep in mind that these assets are not actually connected to the Libraries' catalog so you may need to populate information manually. 

To add a Book from the Catalog - 

  1. Click on the  Add/Reorder button from the content box you'd like to add the link to.
  2. Choose Book from the Catalog from the drop-down menu. 
  3. Type (or paste) in the ISBN for the book.
  4. Click the Get Book Info button.
  5. Add in any information that wasn't pulled in when clicking on the Get Book Info button.
  6. Be sure to include the permalink to the Libraries' catalog listing in the URL field.
  7. Click Save.

To reuse an existing Book from the Catalog asset (one you've added before) -

  1. Click on the  Add/Reorder button from the content box you'd like to add the link to.
  2. Choose Book from the Catalog from the drop-down menu. 
  3. Click on the Reuse Existing Book tab.
  4. Search by name for the book you'd like to reuse.
    1. The search is pretty sensitive so you'll need to type in the name of the book exactly how it was typed when it was first created.
  5. Select the book you'd like to reuse.
  6. Only select Copy if you're reusing an asset owned by someone else. Otherwise, you're duplicating assets unnecessarily and defeating the purpose of reusing the asset to begin with.
  7. Click Save.

How It Looks

top example of the correct way to add books from the catalog assets, bottom example of the incorrect way to list books

Example Asset

When adding a Purdue subscription database to a guide, you'll want to add it as Database asset. Database assets pull directly from the A-Z Database List and are maintained by Admin. 

To add a Database asset to a guide - 

  1. Click on the  Add/Reorder button from the content box you'd like to add the link to.
  2. Choose Database from the drop-down menu. 
  3. Search by name for the database you'd like to reuse.
    1. The search is pretty sensitive so you'll need to type in the name of the link exactly how it appears on the A-Z List.
  4. Select the database from the list.
  5. Click Save.

How It Looks

top example of database assets added in correctly, bottom example of database added in as HTML (incorrect)

Example Asset

When adding links to other websites to a guide, in most cases, you'll want to add them as a Link asset. Link assets are saved in the Asset Library and can be reused from guide to guide. They also provide statistics on number of clicks and are caught by the Link Checker which is an important feature when it comes to guide maintenance.

To add a Link asset -

  1. Click on the  Add/Reorder button from the content box you'd like to add the link to.
  2. Choose Link from the drop-down menu. 
  3. Give the link a brief, but descriptive name in the Link Name field.
  4. Add the URL in the Link URL field.
  5. Include a brief description of the link (even if it seems obvious to you) in the Description field.
  6. Click Save.

To reuse an existing Link asset (one you've added before) -

  1. Click on the  Add/Reorder button from the content box you'd like to add the link to.
  2. Choose Link from the drop-down menu. 
  3. Click on the Reuse Existing Link tab.
  4. Use the drop-down menu to search for (by name) the link asset you want to reuse.
    1. The search is pretty sensitive so you'll need to type in the name of the link exactly how it was typed when it was first created.
  5. Select the link you'd like to reuse.
    1. Do not select Copy, otherwise, you are just creatine another asset rather than reusing an existing asset.
  6. Click Save.

For more information check out our training video - LibGuides Training Tidbits: The Asset Library.

How It Looks

top example of how links should be added (as assets), bottom example of how links should not be added (as HTML hyperlinked rich text links)

Example Asset