Images courtesy Google.com

Prairie View A&M university

John B. Coleman Library: Reference and Information Services Department

LibGuides Policy Manual

This guide provides standards, best practices, and guidelines for Reference and Instruction Librarians to follow when creating and updating guides, and will help create usable, readable and well-designed guides for the John B. Coleman Library. Guides should only be created if they have a specific curricular support purpose or meet other research or internal need. All new guides are subject to review by the RLGMT in accordance with the LibGuides Policy. Check the Publishing Checklist to learn the minimum requirements necessary to create a guide.



John B. Coleman Library Reference and Information Services Department develops and maintains LibGuide webpages to support the Reference and Information Services Department's research, reference instruction teaching and learning needs of the Prairie View A&M University faculty, staff and students, as well as for internal Reference and Information Services Department's library staff purposes. This LibGuide Policy is for the direction of the Reference and Instruction Librarians to have a discourse of action for planning, designing, organizing and disseminating their Course, Subject and Presentation online resources. The policies set place in this guide adhere to meeting the minimum requirements for the Reference and Instruction librarians’’ teaching strategies. Please note this policy guide serves the purpose of offering the best practices for the reference and instruction librarians to have guidance in assuring their LibGuides meet the standards of the Association of College and Research (ACRL) Librarians  Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education in teaching and instruction.   These guides are built on Springshare’s LibGuides Content Management System. The Reference LibGuides Management Team (RLGMT) consisting of the reference and instruction librarians administers all guides, develops best practices, and ensures consistency for guides’ design and content. All guides should comply with the PVAMU IT Web Governance Working Group’s Style and Content Guide to ensure consistent look and feel across the Library’s web presence. This Policy, and any documents incorporated by reference, establishes shared expectations for the purpose, content, design, publishing, administration, and other elements to ensure positive impact for library information literacy to the entire PVAMU campus community.

I. Purpose

LibGuides are tools developed to deliver research and curricular support and learning objects to the PVAMU community. LibGuides should have standard ADA online compliance and contain many different learning styles of visualization.

II. Administration

The Reference LibGuides Management Team (RLGMT) oversees the Reference and Instruction Librarian's LibGuides and establishes best practices, and ensures quality control. The RLGMT collaborates with the IT Web Governance Working Group (WGW) in order to optimize the LibGuides interface and functionalities. The RLGMT collaborates with Learning and Curriculum Services to develop learning objects using LibGuides. The RLGMT is charged with developing a Standards and Best Practices Guide, Publishing Workflow, and a Publishing Checklist to adhere for the Reference and Instruction Librarians. The RLGMT also designates administrators, template creators, and publishing workflow reviewers in accordance with the Reference and Information Services Department. 

III. Maintenance

All published and private guides are reviewed three times per calendar year to ensure curricular relevance and compliance with the Standards and Best Practices Guide. The RLGMT oversees this regular audit and works closely with guide authors to ensure awareness of and alignment with this Policy and the Best Practices Guide. RLGMT representatives may update guides for minor errors such as typos or dead links.

IV. New Guides

The Reference and Information Services Department Library Guides should have a specific curricular support purpose or meet other research or internal need. Guide authors should consider whether their content is better suited for main library website. After the LibGuide goes live, all new guides will be subject to review by the RLGMT in accordance with the Publishing Workflow and Publishing Checklist [See section] The RLGMT consults with authors to develop guides hosting content boxes with frequently used, standardized content (Share Content Guide) that can be mapped to other guides. General Purpose guides generally.

Authored and Updated: 

Kimberly M. Gay 

Head of Reference and Information Services Department, Academic Librarian II