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What is a Library Research Guide?

Learn about Library Research Guides (sometimes referred to as "LibGuides") and how they can be helpful to you and your students!

Why use Research Guides?

Purdue Libraries offer many resources to help students succeed. Research Guides provide tailored content for specific courses or majors, helping students find information for assignments, projects, and campus resources. Sharing links to these guides can boost students’ confidence and performance in your course and at Purdue.

Research Guide Types/Sub-Collections

Course Guides are created by Liaison Librarians for particular courses. These guides often contain the most applicable library resources for assignments and research projects related to the course content. 

For example, the English 108: Introductory Composition guide below contains introductory information about the Purdue Libraries, guidelines on creating a search strategy, evaluating sources, and more.

Please note that a guide does not exist for every Purdue course. 

Subject Guides provide more general information and curated resources for a discipline or topic.

For example, the Hospitality & Tourism Management guide below provides information on how to location information on markets and industries, data, and historical documents related to the HTM industry.

User Guides (or tutorials) often provide detailed information on how to complete a process, use a service, or locate a resource. 

For example, the scite guide below includes how to access scite, use case examples, information on how to use the advanced search, AI ethics considerations.

Workshop/Event Guides typically showcase content used during or as part of a Libraries sponsored workshop or event so he information can be referred back to at a later date.

For example, the Voting guide below was created in tandem with a Libraries 2024 Voter Registration Day event and provides non-partisan information and resources for voters in Indiana.