Best Practices for Subject/Course/General LibGuides at USF

Guide Types

All guides must have a Guide Type selected. Choose from one of the following types:

General Purpose

Guides that provide information about a library collection or service

Subject Guides

Guides that are designed to give guidance on resources relevant to a specific academic subject (e.g. Chemistry, Psychology, Business)

Course Guide

Guides designed to support the teaching and research needs of a specific course, often created at the request of an instructor

Guide Groups

All guides must have a Group selected. Choose the most appropriate Group for your guide from this list:

Course Guides

Choose this if your guide is a Course Guide. Examples: ENC 1101, EDA 6232

Subject Guides

Choose this if your guide is on a particular subject/discipline and not for a class. Examples: Chemistry, English, History

Library Collections and Services

Choose this if the guide is about a part of the Library’s collection or a service that the library offers. Examples: E-book Collections, News/Newspaper Databases, Copyright, EndNote

Digital Collections and Services

Choose this if the guide is part of DSS. Examples: Oral History Program, Asaba Memorial Project

USF Health Libraries

Choose this if the guide is created for services and resources at the USF Health Libraries. Examples: Evidence Based Practice, Health and Medicine

Subject Guides vs Course Guides

Before creating a course guide, determine if there is enough new and unique content to justify a course guide. Examples of good uses of course guides are if the guide is assignment based or if the course brings together content from a variety of disciplines. For example, SYP 4420, Consumer Culture contains a mix of social science and business databases. If a course guide is deemed necessary:

Make sure to include a profile box with the appropriate subject specialist on all course guides. It might also be relevant to add details of other subject specialists who might assist (especially for cross disciplinary topics).
Work carefully with the course instructor. Make sure that you obtain a copy of the course syllabus when designing the guide
Citation Style: if a major assignment for the course is a research paper, consider including a tab/box on the appropriate bibliographic citation style.