Best Practices and Standards (NEW VERSION)

• Reuse assets as often as possible. This makes it easier to batch update.
• Alternatively, link to the specific page that will be needed by the user. Refrain from linking to the main page of a large and potentially confusing website.
• Always have the description display beneath the item title. Never have it hidden behind a pop up button as this is not always accessible.
• Shorter descriptions are generally better and in keeping with the goal of less text-heavy guides.

• Order link lists by relevance.

Adding custom descriptions to assets

Short custom descriptions (1-2 sentences) often help users understand the value of a resource for their subject. NOTE that customised descriptions do not map with an asset—if you map an asset to another location, you will need to copy and paste this into the description field for the mapped asset.

LibGuides allow you to control the display of descriptions; however hover text is not always accessible so we do not recommend using it.

In order to get the permalink from MultiSearch for a resource follow these instructions:

1. To add a database, choose the content type ‘Database’ rather than ‘Link’. A database is classified as such if it has an entry in MultiSearch and will be linked to using the permalink URL.
2. You will be prompted to search for the database first

3. If the database you have searched for is in the system, select it

4. You will be taken to the following page, where you can edit your description if you would like. PLEASE NOTE: If you add a custom description it will replace the saved description in this particular instance only. If you wish to include both the saved description and your custom description you must copy and paste the saved description to the custom description box before adding your custom information.

5. Click ‘Save’ to add the database to your guide.
6. If the database you want to use is not found in the system it will need to be added manually in the asset page first, and then you will need to follow this process. Please speak to someone in the ILS&D team about adding new database asset, as you will need the proper permission in the LibGuides system to do this.

1. To add another asset type, choose the correct content type. Eg to add a link choose the content type ‘Link’. A link will be any URL not classified as a database (which is listed in MultiSearch and linked to using the permalink URL).
2. The asset screen will not prompt you to search before adding a new record but you MUST do this first. Click on the ‘Reuse Existing Link’ tab in the Add... box.
   
3. Here you can search to see if the link is already in the system, just like you do with Databases.

4. Click the appropriate record to reuse the asset in your guide. If you choose to copy the item it will create a new asset. This means that your asset will not be mapped to the original anymore, so if any information changes it must be changed for this record as well.
5. If the asset you want is not already in the system, use the ‘Create New...’ tab to add the details.
6. Click ‘Save’ to add the asset to your guide.

If you have any questions about any of these procedures please talk to someone in ILS&D. It might take a little bit of time to get used to the new system.