Guidelines and Standards for Research Guides

A Subject Guides is a research guide which can be used by students at any campus that covers information and resources applicable to the subject area.

When you are creating a Subject Guide, assign the appropriate Type and Subject designation:

1. Click on the pencil icon next to the Type/Group field located under the guide title.
2. Under Guide Type, select Subject Guide.  If the guide should also show up under a specific campus, select the appropriate campus under Group.
3. Click on the pencil icon next to the Subject field located under the guide title.
4. Select the appropriate subject for the guide.  If the appropriate subject is absent from the list, contact your LWC representative to discuss adding a new subject.

Once you publish the guide, it will automatically display on the Research Guides by Subject page. 

The Guide Name will appear at the top of the guide and in all list of guides.

Use the following standards to name your subject guide: 

Subject Guide: Subject Guide titles should include the complete subject name without abbreviation.

Examples:

• Psychology
• Environmental Science

"How to" Guides: These guides fall under the Subject Guide type and should begin with "How to" followed by an ellipsis (...) and then a short, descriptive title.

Examples:

• How to...Find Primary Sources
• How to...Evaluate Websites

Other Guides: Other guides that fall under the Subject Guide type should be named with short, descriptive titles.

Example: MLA 9 Citation Style Guide

Friendly URLs allow students and faculty to easily return to a guide without navigating via the course listings and allow for easy printing on handouts.  Brevity is key for friendly URLs, so include only essential information. Spaces and unusual punctuation cause problems in URLs and are to be avoided. The URL does not affect sorting or organization.

You can assign/edit a friendly URL within the Subject Guide and its pages.

Guide friendly URL:

1. Click on the pencil icon next to the URL field.
2. Enter the entire subject name. Do not use abbreviations.

Recommended case:  lowercase letters

Examples:

• https://libguides.nvcc.edu/english
• https://libguides.nvcc.edu/psychology

Guide friendly URL for pages:

1. Click on the pencil icon next to the URL field on the page to be edited.
2. Enter the name of the page. Page names can be shortened in the Friendly URL if necessary.  Do not use any punctuation or dashes.

Recommended case:  lowercase letters

Examples:

• https://libguides.nvcc.edu/english/articles
• https://libguides.nvcc.edu/psychology/citingsources

All Subject Guides should follow the navigation layout, style, and content standards:

Guide Navigation Layout:

1.  In the edit mode for the guide, click on the Guide Layout/Picture Icon dropdown menu. 
2. Click on Guide Navigation Layout.
3. Select NOVA Default - Side-Nav w/o Search Box.  
4. Check the box for 'Show all subpages in side navigation'.
5. Check the box for 'Showbox-level navigation for selected page'.
6. Click Save.

Style:

• Font Name should remain on the default setting.
• Font Size should remain on the default setting.
• Use Heading 3 for headings as structural elements.

Content:

• Subject Guide Description: Must include Direct comments to [librarian email address].
• Subject Guide Template: Subject Guides are modeled off of the Subject Guide Template and should include all pages, with the exception of the Websites page which is optional and should be used only when necessary, and map or copy relevant boxes . DO NOT MAP TO ENTIRE PAGES FROM THE SUBJECT GUIDE TEMPLATE.
  • Get Started page
    • Map Search the Library Catalog box from LWC Assets guide.
    • Copy Top Databases box from template and edit to fit the subject.
    • Map Need Help box from for the LWC Assets guide. Box should be in the far left column of the guide directly under the guide navigation.
  • Books & eBooks
    • Map Search the Library Catalog box from the LWC Assets guide.
    • Map the Using the Library Catalog video from the Video Tutorials guide.
    • An eBooks box is optional if specific eBook databases should be highlighted.
    • Map Need Help box from for the LWC Assets guide. Box should be in the far left column of the guide directly under the guide navigation.
  • Articles
    • Copy the Article Databases box from the template and edit to fit the subject.
    • Copy the Search Tips box from the template and edit to fit the subject.
    • Map Need Help box from for the LWC Assets guide. Box should be in the far left column of the guide directly under the guide navigation.
  • Encyclopedias
    • Copy the Encyclopedias box from the template and edit to fit subject.
    • Map the Why to Use Reference Books box from the template.
    • Map Need Help box from for the LWC Assets guide. Box should be in the far left column of the guide directly under the guide navigation.
  • Videos & Images
    • Map or copy the Videos box from the template depending on content desired to fit the subject.
    • Map or copy the Images box from the template depending on content desired to fit the subject.
    • Map Need Help box from for the LWC Assets guide. Box should be in the far left column of the guide directly under the guide navigation.
  • Websites (optional)
    • Copy the Useful Websites box from the template and edit to fit the subject.
    • Map Need Help box from for the LWC Assets guide. Box should be in the far left column of the guide directly under the guide navigation.
  • Citing Sources
    • Map the Citation Style box/s from the template that are appropriate for the subject.
    • Map to the Plagiarism Resources box from the template.
    • Map Need Help box from for the LWC Assets guide. Box should be in the far left column of the guide directly under the guide navigation.
• Add Databases from the A-Z Databases list: As the databases are centrally managed in our A-Z Databases List, any changes to the databases (such as its URL) will automatically be reflected in every guide where the database is being used.  Always include the database description below the database title/link.
• Additional pages/content: May be added if absolutely necessary for the subject. 
  • Example of acceptable use of additional pages: 
    • https://libguides.nvcc.edu/paralegal
  • NOVA Libraries created videos and showcases can be added where appropriate.  All videos should be mapped from the Video Tutorials guide. 
• How to guides and other guides: Do not need to follow the Subject Guide Template, but must still use the same navigation style and should use the same page names and formatting as the Subject Guide Template where applicable.

Every Canvas course has a “Library Resources” link in the navigation menu. By default, the 'Library Resources' links out to a NOVA Libraries Subject Guide, but can also link to a specific course guide.

Adding LTI Metadata to your Subject Guide allows the guide to show up in all courses within the subject; the LibGuides LTI Automagic implementation works by matching metadata in your libguides to course ID numbers.

The basic elements of the metadata you will add to your guides are: 

Metadata name: lti

Metadata value: NV280.SUBJECT [See the table below with examples]

Important notes about LTI metadata:

• The metadata value will always begin with NV280, our institution code
• You need a period between each value (.)
• More specific metadata trumps less specific metadata 

• You can assign a guide to more than one subject area. Typically this will require you to enter multiple lines of LTI metadata. It’s fine for one guide to have many lines of LTI metadata.

Examples of metadata values:

Instructions for adding LTI metadata:

1. Click on the Guide Information/Wheel Icon dropdown menu in the upper right of the guide.
2. Click on Guide Metadata.
3. Select the second tab, Custom Metadata.
4. Click Empty in the name field.
5. Enter lti in the name field and click the blue check mark.  Must be all lowercase.
6. Click Empty in the value field.
7. Enter the appropriate metadata in the value field and click the blue check mark to save.

NOTE: The guide must be published to display in the Canvas course.

All Subject Guides should follow the maintenance standards and guidelines:

• Annually (in the summer):
  • Review the guide to make sure it conforms to the current Subject Guide Template.
  • Review guide content to ensure accuracy.
  • Use the LibGuides Link Checker tool to ensure that all links are active; websites change frequently so you may need to update URLs or replace them with a different resource. 
  • Review Subject Guide usage statistics. 
  • Unpublish a Subject Guide only if a Subject Guide was created for a program that is no longer offered at the college.  Subject guide can only be deleted with approval from the Library Web Committee.