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LibGuides Best Practices

Images

ADA Compliance for Images

  • If you have images, you should provide meaningful texts or descriptions in the alt-text box

Mobile Friendly

  • Define table or image widths as percentages (not pixels) - Put % in width/height - 30% or 70%
  • See How-to if you aren't sure how to do it

Box Types

Choose an appropriate box type. Don't create Rich Text Box only!

Standard Box:

This box will likely be your most-used box. You can add any kind of content you want within this box - not just Rich Text/HTML including:

Content you've added:

  • Databases
  • Links
  • Guide Lists
  • Books from the Catalog
  • Documents/Files

Interactive/Dynamic Tools:

  • RSS Feeds
  • Media/Widgets
  • Polls
  • Google Search Boxes

Widgets from Springshare Products

  • LibAnswers v2
  • LibSurveys
  • LibCal v2

You can add various types of content all in one box. You reorder content within the box as well! Move a whole group of links from one place to another, or simply move one link from one group of links to another within the same box.

standard box example

Tabbed Box:

Use a tabbed box to include multiple tabs of content in a single box - it's a great way to include a lot of content without taking up a lot of space!

Setting up a Tabbed Box:

  1. After adding the Tabbed Box to the page, click the Cog icon in the box's header.
    adding a tabbed box
  2. On the Add/Edit Tabs pane, give your tab a name and click Create New Tab.
  3. Give your next tab a name and click Create New Tab again.
    • ​If you have changed an existing tab name, be sure to click Update to save your changes.
    • You can reorder your tabs by clicking and dragging them to a new position. Be sure to click Save Positions.
  4. Add additional tabs or click OK.
  5. Add content to the box!

adding new tabs

Gallery Boxes:

Easily create a box of rotating images that you have uploaded to your Image Manger or that you have found online.

Adding Images to a Gallery Box:

  1. After adding the Gallery box to the page, click the Cog icon in the box's header.
    add gallery images
  2. On the Add/Edit Panes window for the Gallery Box, paste in an image's URL or click Browse to add an image from your Image Manager.
  3. Give your image a label and a caption.
    • You can also add a link to the image if you want the image to be a clickable link.
  4. Click Create to add an additional pane or click OK to save your box.

setting up your gallery box

The Gallery Box will also automatically change its height based on the current image, so it is also a good idea to have your images all be the same height.

Profile Box:

The Profile Box type lets you add any user profile in your system to any page, anywhere.

  1. After you have added the Profile Box to your page, click the Cog icon in the box's header.
    • Note: The owner of the guide is the profile that is displayed by default.
  2. Choose the profile to display
  3. Click OK.

add a profile box

Content (Asset) Types

  • Your standard WYSIWYG-based rich text content item. Add your own custom HTML, images, tables, etc. The possibilities are nearly limitless.
  • Note: Rich Text/HTML assets cannot be reused and are not included in the Assets repository
  • Add a link to a database that you have added to your A-Z list.
  • Databases are managed in the Databases repository and cannot be created directly from a guide.
  • Add a web link. Any link. 
  • Create a brand new link or reuse on of your existing links.
  • Included in Assets repository.
  • Add a widget for a video, search box, an iframe of another webpage, or anything else you can embed!
  • Adding your widget code through this asset type (instead of adding it to the Rich Text/HTML type) allows for the widget to be reused across your system.
  • Included in Assets repository.
  • This one is pretty self explanatory. Add a link to a book from your catalog!
  • Add a brand new book or reuse an exisitng book from your system.
  • Included in Assets repository.
  • Upload a document to your guide that your users can quickly access and download.
  • Files can be up to 20MB (LibGuides CMS).
  • Add a brand new file or reuse an existing one from your system.
  • Included in Assets repository.
  • Quickly create a list of guides from your system.
  • Manually select a list, or choose guides for subject, user or group.
  • Not included in Assets repository.
  • Add a Google search box.
  • Choose from a standard search, Google Books, Google Scholar, or Google Patents.
  • Not included in Assets repository.