Best Practices for Subject/Course/General LibGuides at USF
Title and Naming Conventions
Subject guides
Guide names should be consistent with A-Z database list category or departmental name (e.g. Engineering, History, Biography)
Course Guides
Guide names should use Course Number: Course Name: Campus (e.g. MMC2100:Writing for the Mass Media: Tampa campus). For guides created for a specific section, add the instructor name in parentheses after the campus name. For cross listed courses, use all course titles, separated by a forward slash.
Examples:
LIT 2300: Introduction to Poetry: Tampa campus,
LIT 2000: Introduction to the Short Story: Tampa campus (Jones) and
LIT 2000: Introduction to the Short Story : Tampa campus (Smith)
ARH 6798 / ARH 5021 / LIT 2300: Idea of Venice: Tampa campus
General Purpose Guides
No specific naming convention is required, however, the name should be descriptive of the guide content (e.g. Ebook Collections, Copyright, News and Newspapers, Oral History Program). These general purpose guides should not have campus specific identifiers unless appropriate for topic.
Naming Pages and Content Boxes within Guides
Avoid library jargon in naming pages.
Specific Titles: be specific in naming pages. “Encyclopedias” or "Overviews" are more meaningful to students than “Reference Tools”.
Short Titles: keep page titles short – they should clearly reflect the content in that page.
Use "&": use "&" instead of "and" in titles.
Capitalization: use appropriate capitalization.
Vagueness: Avoid vague terms like "other" or "additional resources".
Home page-Better not to title the landing page “Home.” Something like “Getting Started” "Overview" “Best Bets” or "Start Here" are good choices.