Web-Based Subject Guides

An Exploration of Best Practices

 

Introduction

 

Subject Guide: a list of information resources about a particular topic, ordered by a search strategy

 

This definition is based on Carla Dunsmore’s updated definition from The ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science. (Dunsmore 2002, 150) The web-based subject guide is the newest adaptation of the traditional library pathfinder, a print guide to research on a subject.

Web-based subject guides have several advantages over their print predecessors. They are easier and cheaper to update when new resources are added. (Wilson 2002, 99) Electronic subject guides can be used by patrons at their homes and offices prior to or instead of going to the library. (Dahl 2001) Subject guides are especially valuable resources for distance learners who rarely, if ever, visit the physical library. (Grimes and Morris 2001, 72) Subject guides on the web provide direct access to Internet sites and electronic databases. (Dunsmore 2002, 150)

Subject guides also have advantages over search engines for beginning a research project. The items included in a subject guide are relevant to the topic since they have been selected and evaluated by a person, usually a librarian. The user is given further clues about the relevancy of each item for his or her research by the annotation of each entry. (Dean 1998, 81) The organization of the subject guide implicitly leads the researcher along a search path that is likely to lead to relevant, authoritative results more quickly than a haphazard search of the web.

With all of these benefits to patrons, it is no surprise that nearly ninety percent of academic libraries include subject guides on their web sites. (Grimes and Morris 2001, 71) Public libraries have also been encouraged in the literature to create subject guides (Wilson 2002, 99) and many have done so. St. Louis Public Library has several accessible from a page called Reader’s Advisory:

http://www.slpl.lib.mo.us/libsrc/readers.htm

Two recent articles in the library literature have called for standards or guidelines for developing web-based subject guides. (Dunsmore 2002, 152) (Dahl 2001) This paper attempts to do that through examination of the available literature, observation of current subject guides, and exploration of respected books on web design and information architecture. The best practices gleaned by this method have not been confirmed by usability studies, but provide a starting point for that type of research. In the meantime, these best practices simplify the decision-making process inherent in a large project like creating or enhancing a collection of web-based subject guides.

#1: Call it a ‘subject guide’

Subject guides on the Web are called by many names. The University of Wisconsin uses “Research Guides” (among other terms) as shown on the European Union page:

http://college.library.wisc.edu/resources/subject_guides/eurocomm.htm

Wesleyan calls its history subject guide by the name History Resources:

http://www.wesleyan.edu:9092/libr/php/subjects/template.php3?subject=history

Frequently, different terms are used on the same web site. Louisiana State University, for example, uses the phrase “Subject Guide” on its top pages but the titles of the guides use a variety of terms, like Webliography and Resources:

http://www.lib.lsu.edu/subjectguides/humanities.html

Clever names and metaphors abound on the Web. Unfortunately, they often obscure the underlying concept rather than illuminate the function and purpose of the site. Mercer University apparently discovered this. They originally called their subject guides “World Wide Web Reading Rooms.” (Bunnell and Byerley 2000, 33) A current visit to the Mercer University library web site, however, reveals that these pages are now referred to by the more descriptive title, “Web Links by Subject.” See:

http://tarver.mercer.edu/weblinks/

Carla Dunsmore, in her article “A Qualitative Study of Web-Mounted Pathfinders Created by Academic Business Libraries,” points out that the traditional term for the subject guide, pathfinder, is not well-understood outside of the library field and is, therefore, rarely used on library websites. “Subject guide” was found to be used frequently enough to be considered common usage, although it was certainly not ubiquitous. (Dunsmore 2002, 151) Dunsmore argued that either “pathfinder” should be used consistently and taught to students, or it should be abandoned for an easily understood phrase like “subject guide.” (152)

If libraries settle on one term, patrons will find the subject guides more easily when they switch topics or even libraries. (Dunsmore, 151) “Subject guide” as a term has the advantage of being self-defining (a guide to a subject). Most visitors to a library’s web site will readily understand what a subject guide is and how it might be used for reference and research. It is likely too late to establish universal acceptance of the phrase “subject guide” by libraries. However, any library that is revamping its subject guides or starting anew could adopt that term and use it consistently throughout the web site.

#2 Create a template

A template for the subject guides on a library’s web site helps establish consistency, making it easier for a patron to use multiple guides. (Dahl 2001) Templates also make it easier for librarians, especially those with little interest in web design, to create and maintain subject guides. Some colleges have taken this a step further by storing bibliographic data and annotations in a database which is used to create the page displays dynamically based on a template. (Bills, Cheng, and Nathanson 2003, 4) Bryn Mawr’s subject guides use this technique:

http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/databases.shtml

The template, as well as the subject guides based on it, should be a single web page. This allows the patron to print the document for use and reading off-line. A self-contained page also gives the user “confidence that all related and relevant information regarding this subject was captured.” (Dunsmore 2002, 151) The University of Colorado at Boulder has spent a lot of effort developing subject guides, but it would be easy to surf to the e-Resources from the history page and forget to come back to the other excellent information on primary resources and maps:

http://www-libraries.colorado.edu/services/subjectguides/history/frontpage.htm

Although a template is important as a guideline and starting point, it should not be rigidly enforced. A subject guide is structured according to a search strategy and not all disciplines lend themselves to the same strategy. “A guide to history resources may employ a chronological scheme whereas a guide to international relations may provide a geographical access path.” (Morville and Wickhorst 1996, 31) Creativity by librarians can be encouraged by allowing for a picture or other slight variations in the design. See, for example, the Linguistics and Classics sites at Yale:

 http://www.library.yale.edu/Internet/linguistics.html

http://www.library.yale.edu/Internet/classics.html

#3 Test the site with users

Usability guru, Jakob Nielsen, discusses the benefits of user testing in the Usability 101 article on his web site:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html

His examples are mostly for the commercial sector, but the problems persist in the academic environment. Subject guides waste librarians’ efforts if students abandon them for general search engines because they find the interface too confusing or difficult to use. According to Nielsen, “there are many methods for studying usability, but the most basic and useful is user testing.” Nielsen describes the process briefly, including testing early—starting with the previous design to see what’s working and what isn’t. (Nielsen 2003) For a fuller treatment, see Steve Krug’s book, Don’t Make Me Think. He outlines an easy, cheap, way to perform usability testing, with the advice to “keep it simple so you do enough of it.” (Krug 2003, 138)

The only published result of user testing on subject guides is the Charles W. Dean article, “The Public Electronic Library: Web-Based Subject Guides.” Dean and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin conducted a combination of user testing, focus groups, and interviews to evaluate a new biology subject guide by different user populations (undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty.). This method was more involved than the process described by Nielsen and Krug, but demonstrably identified problems with the subject guide, particularly its use of unfamiliar terms to identify sections. For example, undergraduates don’t know what is meant by “Full-Text Resources.” (Dean 1998, 85)

Dean proved that user testing provides valuable feedback to designers and writers while developing subject guides. Since his article was published in 1998, the concept of usability testing has evolved so that the standard advice is to use a simpler method than Dean’s and to test more frequently during the web site development process. Further research could be done to see if the simpler methods yield similar results, which one would expect given the wide application of current practices in usability.

#4 Point to local resources

With the proliferation of gateways and other large sites of subject-organized links, most academic subjects have been well-covered on the Internet either by professional organizations or academic institutions. There is little point to creating an exhaustive list of links to mathematics web sites, for example, when the creators of the Mathematics Archives have already spent considerable effort doing just that: (Fife and Husch 1999)

http://archives.math.utk.edu/

As one reference librarian said in response to a survey “I, for one, would rather create something unique than just rehash or borrow from other Web sites at other institutions. Since search engines, crude as they are, do eventually get you other web sites, we take that route for those sources. Our web pages tend to be local in focus, promoting good materials in our library.” (Morris and Grimes 1999)

The subject guide is an opportunity to market local library collections and services.  Increase traffic to locally available electronic resources like journal indexes and other databases by including them in the appropriate subject guides. A subject guide can also refer the user to off-line resources like the resume software on the library’s computers (Wilson 2002, 100) or reference books and other print material. If the library has a specialist on the subject, his or her contact information should be included in the subject guide.

The biology subject guide at Simon Fraser University is an example of a subject guide that includes local resources:

http://www.lib.sfu.ca/researchhelp/subjectguides/bisc/bio.htm

This subject guide has links to course-specific materials, links to university-accessible databases, and call numbers for reference books at the library.

Mercer, on the other hand, made a deliberate choice to create separate pages for web links, arguing that students “sometimes have trouble distinguishing between the two types of information.” (Bunnell and Byerley 2000, 35) Their page of history links is well-organized and somewhat helpful, although it would benefit from annotations and several of the links are broken:

http://tarver.mercer.edu/weblinks/history/ushistor.htm

How useful to Mercer students is this page of links, considering that the History Guide (http://www.historyguide.de/index.php ) and The Best of History Web Sites (http://www.besthistorysites.net/ ) maintain large, updated gateways to history sites on the web? Wouldn’t the librarians’ time be better spent creating annotated subject guides that are unique because they include Mercer’s print and electronic collection in the resources?

#5 Write annotations

Over 75% of surveyed libraries provide annotations for at least some of their subject guides. This often varies from librarian to librarian. (Grimes and Morris 2001, 73) Annotations are important because “without a description of what particular sources contain or are useful for, the pathfinder loses some of its value.” (Dahl 2001) Some things to include in the annotation of a resource are an objective description of the content, a subjective evaluation of the quality, and instructions for access. (Morville and Wickhorst 1996, 31) Annotations “should also highlight any additional resources such as glossaries, source lists, or advanced searching forms which might prove helpful when using the page.” (Silet 1999)

Illinois State University’s Milner Library provides excellent annotation for its Management of Sport and Recreation subject guide:

http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/ressubj/subject/physed/manage.htm

University of North Texas, however, has very little annotation for their History subject guide:

http://www.library.unt.edu/subjects/history/history.htm

How many history students would know what to expect if they clicked on the WorldCat link?

 

#6 Keep the subject guide current

Subject guides “are and always will be works in progress due to the dynamic nature of the Web.” (Bunnell and Byerley 2000, 38) They need to be updated when local resources change as well as when web sites move or go defunct.  Once a subject guide is up and running, the visitors to the site will propel changes by asking questions that show deficiencies in the original selection of resources. (Morville and Wickhorst 1996, 32)

Validating links by hand is tedious work, (Bunnell and Byerley 2000, 38) although most libraries surveyed in 1999 did it that way. (Grimes and Morris 2001, 73) Commercial packages, including Front Page, can help. (Bunnell and Byerley 2000, 38) The Mathematics Archives, which is much larger than most library subject guides, uses a Perl script that runs at night to check the links. (Fife and Husch 1999)

Revision dates on web pages alert the user that a site is maintained. Include dates on the subject guide, both the date that it was first posted and the latest revision date. (Alexander and Tate 1999, 45) These dates give the user confidence that the information included in the guide is current.

Columbia’s History subject guide is apparently not current:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/butlref/subj.html

There are no dates to give any clue that this page is actively updated. Several of the links to external pages are broken.

The Narrative Psychology Guide at Le Moyne College has the original posting date, the most recent revision date, and a list of what’s new on the page (at the bottom):

http://maple.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/narpsych.html

 

#7 Promote subject guides

Subject guides “are useless if no one knows about them.” (Bunnell and Byerley 2000, 36) Here are some ideas for promoting subject guides:

• Link to the guides from the library’s home page (Bunnell and Byerley 2000, 37)
• Introduce them in library use instruction classes (ibid.)
• Refer patrons to the guides during reference interviews (ibid.)
• Advertise them on bookmarks that are handed out at campus events (Wilson 2002, 100)
• Catalog the guides so they show up in the OPAC (ibid.)
• Post a flyer about a particular subject guide on the relevant department’s physical bulletin board
• Hold a “house-warming party” for a new subject guide, inviting faculty who teach in that subject
• Unveil a new subject guide at the meeting of the student chapter of the relevant professional group
• Request that academic departments link from their web pages to their corresponding subject guides

 

Georgia State University’s subject guides are accessible from at least two links on their home page:

http://www.library.gsu.edu/

Conclusion

The best practices outlined here would improve the functionality and usability of many subject guides on the web. The first three practices (call it a subject guide, create a template, and test the site with users) promote consistency of terms and organization, checking that the decisions made to achieve consistency make sense to users. The next two practices (point to local resources and write annotations) encourage librarians to maximize the functionality of the subject guides they create. The final two practices (keep the subject guide current and promote subject guides) point out that a subject guide is not a static entity—to remain relevant and visible the subject guide must be maintained and marketed.

Further research is required to validate these best practices and to identify other best practices. For example, how useful are statistics on web page usage? Many libraries report that they collect statistics (Grimes and Morris 2001, 72), but nothing has been published on how the data benefits future enhancements of subject guides.

Subject guides are invaluable tools for researchers, including fellow librarians when they are working in unfamiliar fields. In the Information Age, researchers need help ordering and selecting from a glut of data available. As powerful and effective information resources, subject guides are worthy of study and consideration.

References