Skip to Main Content

Best Practices for LibGuides at UCLA

Suggestions and guidelines for using LibGuides to best effect in the UCLA Library.

Using Shared Links

class="box-in-box">

Links versus links

Remember, the LibGuides Link checker and Link statistics only work on links explicitly added as Link entries in the LibGuides content type. They simply don't "see" links in regular text, or even links imbedded in the Link descriptions!

Whenever possible, you want to reuse the shared content Databases from the A-Z Databases. By reusing those links, you're essentially letting the Scholarly Communication and Licensing Department do all the work of managing your links for you!

When you create your own Links, however, there are some tips to keep in mind.

General Rules for Links

class="box-in-box">

Links versus citations

In guides, we normally link to sources rather than citing them.

  • A citation is static information designed to allow the reader to find the source. It's the reader's responsibility to know how to look it up.
  • A link is a live connection to the source. It's the author's responsibility to maintain it and ensure it continues to work. Because links are kept live, you don't need to reproduce all of the info of a full citation.
  • When copying the URL for a site’s home page, leave off things like index.html, main.asp, or pretty much anything after the core domain info. The actual name of a site's home page tends to change every time the site gets updated with new technology—but no matter what it's called, the server will always show the home page if you don't specify a page. So make your links more durable by linking to the domain rather than a specific (temporary) file name.
  • Don't list URLs in the visible text, just link the appropriate words.
  • Make sure your in-text links don't include the spaces or punctuation before/after the linked phrase. (In case you didn't guess, that was a "wrong" example.)
  • Click here is probably the most disparaged phrase in web design. At its worst, "click here" is an example of mystery meat navigation. At best, it's a waste of space. The same rule applies to links named "this page," or similar empty phrases. Linked text should always explicitly name or describe where it's going.
    • Bad: Click here to search the web.
    • Almost as Bad: Click here to use Google, a web search engine.
    • Good: Use Google to search the web.

Link Settings

Icons

Proxy Settings

When you add or edit a link, there's a choice to Enable or Disable the proxy. Do not enable it. This feature only works on campuses using a proxy authentication system unrelated to our own proxy server system.

Linking to UCLA Content

Links to Main Web Site (Drupal)

One of the problems with "friendly URLs" as used in Libguides and Drupal is that they can be changed without warning. This is especially likely in our new website, where everything's still in flux. In order to avoid broken links, therefore, it's good practice to link to "unfriendly" yet persistent URLs. In Drupal, you can find these by looking at a page's Source code. Look around line 20 for a line that has the word "node". That's the permanent URL which you can always use.

Links to the Library Catalog

It's a good idea to not put locations and call numbers in your guides. Those change over time, and we really don't have enough staff to be constantly double-checking to make sure they're up-to-date. Instead, just link to the Library Catalog record, which has the most recent location information, provides the circ status, and allows the user to place holds or SRLF requests.

  • Be sure to use the Permalink.
  • The LibGuides "Books from the Catalog" provides some special features like auto-filling bib fields if you provide an ISBN. However it isn't pulling that info from our Catalog, so be sure to double-check. It's really only useful if you want to display cover art for the books. In fact, if you don't use cover art or extensive annotations for every entry, then it's just a list without bullets, which looks messy and confusing. Don't use Books from the Catalog without cover art.
  • You can copy Primo URLs for search results to provide canned searches for your readers. However, this only works for initial search result screens. If you re-sort the results, click to go on to the next results screen, or choose one of the categories from a browse search, those new URLs cannot be "canned." You have to formulate a search that provides the results you want just by hitting the search button.

Links to Other Guides

While you can use regular Links to link to other guides, if you use the special Guide List content type from the Add/Reorder drop down menu you can generate dynamic lists based on search criteria.

Recommendations v. Advertisements

When you add annotations for linked resources, be careful not to copy information directly from the publisher's description of the product. Not only is it technically a copyright violation, but it's unlikely to provide a neutral critique—our users need to know both the positive and negative aspects of a database to make an informed decision. 

On a more abstract level, most people recognize "marketing-speak" for what it is, and its appearance in your guide detracts from the overall credibility. We can and should recommend resources to our users, but we need to avoid using university resources to provide free advertising.

Always remember that the goal of your annotation is to provide our students and faculty with the information they need to decide if this resource will be useful in their research. Every word that does not serve that purpose is actively hindering them from finding what they need.