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LibGuides Best Practices

PALNI LibGuides Publishing Checklist

☐ Guide is assigned a type (subject, course, topic, etc.)
☐ Guide has been assigned the appropriate subject(s) and/or tag(s) according to the course description
☐ Guide has a friendly URL assigned
☐ Guide has been viewed on multiple devices to check responsiveness
☐ Guide follows institution’s fonts, colors, and styles (See PALNI Brand and Writing Style Guidelines for your school)
☐ Guide and its pages and boxes follows locally defined:
        ☐ Naming conventions
        ☐ LibGuide style guidelines
        ☐ Use of librarian profile boxes
        ☐ LibGuide licensing (Creative Commons or other)
        ☐ Navigation layout (Tab or Side-Nav)
☐ Guide does not duplicate content in an already published guide
☐ Guide provides attribution to content copied from other guide owners as required by Creative Commons license
☐ Guide is not just a list of links, books, resources, etc.
☐ Guide has been proofread for spelling and grammar
☐ Box text that was copied-and-pasted into the guide was cleared of nonstandard styling 

☐ Database and links are added from Database Assets, not as a list of links in a Rich Text Box
☐ Database and links have descriptions that are displayed below the link title
☐ Database and links lists are kept to 7 or less (or broken up and grouped thematically)
☐ Database and links are ordered by relevance
☐ Database and links follow accessibility standards
        Open in the same window
        Do not use options such as pop-out windows
☐ Images have Alternative Text descriptions
☐ Images comply with copyright law or are in the public domain/creative commons. Credit is given to creators of images when appropriate or required.
☐ Videos are embedded using the Media/Widget option, using the code generated by the Embed Responsively tool
☐ Videos have closed captions or include a transcript

Checklist adapted from Boston College Libraries, University of Illinois University Library, University of Connecticut Library, Florida International University Libraries, and Vanderbilt University Heard Libraries