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This paper aims to analyze the intersection of LibGuide authors (producers) and LibGuide users (consumers) at University Library, Cornell University, New York, USA. In consideration of this previous finding, the authors felt it was vital to address the question of how Cornell University Library (CUL) LibGuides can better serve Cornell’s user base. By posing questions such as, “what are authors’ intentions in creating LibGuides” and “how are local users finding, accessing and/or engaging with LibGuides”, this paper hopes to make nuanced recommendations to authors.

This paper addresses two key pieces of data: browser search terms from the Springshare log files and interviews from authors of 20 different LibGuides. The author interviews gave us insight into the purpose, use and marketing of specific library guides for CUL, while browser search terms revealed how our users constructed Internet searches that resulted in that hit on a CUL LibGuide.

Data uncovered in our analysis of affiliated search terms provide great insight into users’ expectations or perception of what they are seeking: 39 per cent of searches performed by affiliated users contained terminology of either the name of the course, the four-digit letter-number code for the course (e.g. ANTH 2300), the name of the professor and the course or some other similar permutation. This suggests that the LibGuides software needs a better way to index institutional courses by number and name, a finding the authors will return to later.

As LibGuides are ephemeral and constantly changing, rather than creating a LibGuides based on the premise of its purpose – course guide, subject guide or other – perhaps, authors should consider how the LibGuide will live online and specifically, what is its life cycle? The longevity of a LibGuide ensures that it will be discovered in some way or another; however, the discovery of outdated material is not the best introduction to these vehicles of information. If LibGuides aim to serve as an unmediated stand-in for librarians, its online life expectancy needs to be considered at the point of creation.

Recommendations for LibGuide authors/producers: place most important content in the first tab (over 50 per cent of hits are to the homepage); minimize the total number of tabs. Fewer tabs are likely to encourage more in-depth browsing and facilitate better discovery of key content; include interactive content in LibGuides, such as assignments and tutorials that increase the use of that LibGuide; identify LibGuides and/or tabs in terms of function – teaching or discovery – within a search environment.

The tension between LibGuides as a teaching tool and LibGuides as an answer to a student’s research is an issue that we should resolve to fix. This tension is often eased in classroom instruction or during mediated interactions at the reference desk or via chat reference. However, in the online environment of LibGuides, librarians must be cognizant that students will often not be seeking the instruction on locating resources but rather will focus on simply locating the resource itself. Course guides might be better served online by pushing the instructional components toward the final tabs and relocating the valuable resource content to the Home tab. Promoting the use of library guides beyond the classroom or the event that they were designed for may not be necessary or desirable; however, as LibGuides have a lengthy life cycle, consideration about how they might meet a user’s online needs is worthwhile.

This paper offers a unique perspective in the use of a common library tool from two points of view: the producers and the consumers of library guides. Too often, people take for granted the idea that they know and understand what librarians and/or library staff do and intend with the creation of LibGuides, without informing our perspective with actual data. The authors realize that the sample size of their interviewee pool was small, but nonetheless, deemed it an essential aspect to consider when evaluating the interaction of library guides or other library content put forth for the constituents we serve. In terms of user research, the authors are in a privileged position given the quantity of attention directed at the consumers of library guides; this study contributes to the conversation by highlighting the rare access people have to the results of unmediated user practices in the information gathering process.

The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which first-year writing course guides contain instructional content and whether the ACRL Framework for information literacy has been addressed in these guides.

First-year writing course guides were identified from American Research Libraries websites and examined for instructional elements. These elements were categorized using a rubric that mapped the Framework to instructional content. Qualtrics was used to organize and analyze the data.

Most first-year writing course guides include instructional content, but less than half incorporate the Framework in some way. Guides that do incorporate the Framework focus on “searching as strategic exploration” and “research as inquiry”.

This paper provides librarians with practical information on first-year writing guides and includes examples of how the Framework might be addressed.

This study contributes to the literature on research guide content and is the first to invent first-year writing course guides.

This paper aims to describe current approaches to and assess the value of placing course‐level research guides generated through LibGuides software into Blackboard learning management system (LMS) shells. It also aims to describe the specific technique of such placement in Blackboard Vista and Blackboard Learn shells.

A link to a library assignment made with LibGuides was embedded as a button in the left‐side navigation bar of the Blackboard shell for an undergraduate communications course. A total of 57 student users responded to a survey on their perceptions of this method of accessing library resources.

The paper reveals that students broadly value access to library resources from a convenient and persistently visible link within their course shell. They demonstrate a strong inclination to use the embedded library resource link first before using other information sources on the open internet.

The study supports the placement of library research guides in a persistently visible position in LMS course shells and presents specific instructions on doing so. Further, this process requires and promotes coordination among librarians, instructors, and information technology staff.

The paper fills a gap in the current practice and theory of the placement of library research guides in course‐level LMSs. It provides empirical research results on the strong effectiveness of persistently visible embedded links to these guides with a student user survey. The paper also describes the practical procedure for combining the dominant instructional technology programs of LibGuides and both Blackboard Vista and Blackboard Learn.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2018.

The paper provides a brief description of all 422 sources, and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and anyone interested as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This paper aims to indicate that library guides seem to be unfamiliar to most students or not easy to find or use. Some improvements have been made by embedding the guides in the learning management system or promoting the guides in formal library instructional classes. Are there other ways to promote or improve the use of library guides? The author proposes an exploratory visual solution to minimize this gap between library users and library guides.

Guided by the cognitive load theory, the proposed solution is a knowledge map created with Freeplane. The proposal is illustrated by comparing a sample knowledge map with its content source, a subject guide in LibGuides, via three browsing paths in locating a recommended database for a particular course on the sample subject guide website.

The knowledge map can display contents in different ways and provide a simple and visual layout with direct access to the library resources, which may help lessen users’ intrinsic cognitive load, minimize extraneous load or promote germane load. The map can also be beneficial to librarians for preparing teaching materials or guides management.

The proposed solution can be implemented with Freeplane based on existing library guides or created from scratch.

The proposed solution addresses a gap in the library field, where the use of knowledge maps for library services is overlooked.

This study aims to assess current academic library services to theater students through an examination of online research guides.

This study uses a representative sample of 100 universities that offer theater degrees; the library website at each of these institutions is examined for the existence of a theater research guide. Each research guide was analyzed in depth.

The vast majority of the universities in the sample did create research guides for theater students, though the contents of these guides varied greatly. The study highlights findings including popular databases and journals for theater students, as well as media resources and common subjects for subsections or course guides.

This study only examined a sample of 100 institutions; many theater research guides were not examined for this study. Additionally, analysis of online content is a time-specific endeavor: a guide may look significantly different from one month to the next, though the recommendations in this article might prove useful even if the sites at these institutions have since been updated.

Through an examination of a great number of guides, a few practical suggestions emerge for librarians looking to create theater research guides, such as highlighting playscripts and other print materials and including hyperlocal information (such as university production history).

Though several studies have been performed on research guides in various disciplines, this article is the first on those to theater students.

This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2020.

The paper provides a brief description of all 440 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested in a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

Introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This study aims to explore how government sources provide authoritative data that students can utilize to complete academic course assignments. The study measures student use of government materials and suggests that librarians incorporate government resources into information literacy instruction.

A five-question paper-and-pencil feedback survey was developed by the researchers and completed at the end of the semester by students in several sections of health and social work classes. The survey measured the level and ease of usage of government information/websites. Students also identified US and state government sources they used to complete their assignments.

Government information can become a critical resource for a life-long learning experience when introduced to students early in their academic careers in freshmen seminars or introductory courses. Government information can be utilized as an authoritative source for research assignments. In addition, students anticipate using government information as they enter their professional careers. Librarians and faculty can work in tandem to build students’ government information literacy skills.

While this study focuses on health and social work, use of online government information by other disciplines should be further investigated.

The findings will be useful for integrating government information into information literacy sessions. Improved familiarity of government information creates more informed professionals and citizens.

This study adds to the body of literature on government literacy. Recommendations are offered on familiarizing users with government sources and improving access to documents via multiple library access points.

The purpose of this paper is to seek to ascertain how many electronic resource troubleshooting LibGuides are in use and what level of support they tend to provide. LibGuides have become quite popular in academic libraries as a tool for subject and college liaison librarians to deliver library-mediated content to colleges and individual classes. Another promising area for their use is to provide electronic resource troubleshooting support to students and faculty, as well as to other library staff.

A sample of electronic resource troubleshooting LibGuides was obtained through a Google advanced search augmented by additional searches in the limited LibGuides community search utility. These LibGuides were selected according to a standard definition of troubleshooting and were analyzed for content on 36 support variables.

A relatively small number of LibGuides were located, and a thorough treatment of electronic resource access issues was present in only a limited number of the LibGuides found.

While some LibGuides may have gone undiscovered owing to an incomplete search strategy for discovery, subsequent efforts to find overlooked pages were mostly fruitless. The relatively small number of electronic resource troubleshooting LibGuides discovered coupled with their simplicity may indicate that the use of LibGuides platform in this capacity has not gained traction.

While there have been many case studies discussing the use of LibGuides as a subject and course guide platform, relatively few have explored the use of LibGuides outside of their traditional subject-focused implementation, and none have looked at LibGuides as a potential platform to aid in electronic resource access troubleshooting.