Databases and Guides Standards and Processes

You should add Databases to your LibGuides through the database function rather than the link function. This is to ensure links to databases are updated in a timely fashion. Below are screenshots to show the process of adding a database to your LibGuide.

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*You may write your own description for a database, or copy and paste the description and add information -- your custom description will replace the stock description.

You can add items from the catalog to your LibGuides through the "Book from the Catalog" function. Even though the function is called "Book from the Catalog", you are able to add videos and other items from the catalog through this function. This function should be used instead of the link function to ensure the library's permalinks are embedded in your guides (and thus links do not break!). 

To get started, click the "Add/Reorder" drop down menu and select "Book from the Catalog."

There are three ways to add an item from our catalog. 

The first is the easiest, but only possible if someone has already added the title to Springshare's asset list. After selecting "Book from the Catalog" in the Add/Reorder menu, select the "Reuse Existing Book" tab and begin typing the title that you're looking for. If the title has already been added, it should appear in the dropdown menu. 

If the item you need has not been added to Springshare's asset list, you may add it yourself. There are two ways to do this. The first is to look up items by their ISBN number (this really only works for books, but if there is an ISBN or ISSN number in our catalog record, this method should work). The form will then autofill with information about the item (please double check the form before publishing, and use the library catalog's permalink for the item URL if needed).

The second way is to add an item to the asset list is to put information about the item in manually.

When adding links to your guides, please use the Link function rather than copying and pasting links into the Rich Text/html. Links that are in the Rich Text are unable to be checked by Springshare's link checker and so it is more difficult to discover when links are corrupted or broken. 

To add a link to your guide, choose "Link" under the "Add/Reorder" content dropdown menu.

If you are adding a brand new link, please create a link name (should be the name of the resource), and then fill in as much information as possible about the link -- the URL is required before saving. If this link requires UMD's proxy to access, make sure to toggle that selection on. After filling out the appropriate information, click the Save button.

You may reuse links you have added to LibGuides! To do so, click the "Reuse Existing Link" tab instead of "Create New Link."  Links are searchable by the name you have assigned them.