Maintaining

At least once a year, but preferably before every semester:

  • Manually check whether your links are still active in your guides.
    • Asset links—LibGuides has a Link Checker tool for these, however, it can give you false positives and negatives (better to just manually check).
    • Text links—check by opening each link and confirming they work; or by using a free link checker service such as W3C Link Checker (remember—you'll have to enter the URL for each page of your guide with text links).
  • Critically review your guides to see whether they're still serving their purpose, are effective in executing their learning objectives, and if their pedagogy is still sound.
  • See if there are any better or more appropriate resources (databases, ebooks, etc.), that can be added or swapped in to your guide.
  • Allow instructors to review relevant course guides so that they can suggest any updates.
  • Review accessibility.
  • Review organization and layout across multiple devices / screen sizes.

Sunsetting

Questions to help identify whether or not your guide has come to the end of its life cycle:

  • Do statistics show decreasing or only very low views of the guide?
  • Has the course you created a guide for ceased to be taught?
  • Is the relevant discipline now focusing on other topics?
  • Do you no longer have an interest in or time to maintain the guide?

Saying yes to any of these questions means you should take a closer look at whether or not your guide should stay published or whether it's time for its status to change (made private, unpublish, or delete):

  • Private—viewable for anyone who has the guide's link, but it doesn't show up in the lists of guides or in search results from the library's website.
  • Unpublish—not viewable to anyone but the editor(s) of the guide, nor does it show up in the lists of guides or in search results from the library's website.
  • Delete—your guide is deleted and cannot be recovered (consider whether unpublishing or making private is more appropriate before taking an irreversible step like deleting).

Transferring Ownership

If you cannot maintain a guide due to other demands of your job (or for whatever reason), but you also don't believe said guide should be sunsetted either—contact Justin to see if transferring ownership to another librarian is appropriate.

There is no shame in transferring ownership. Our responsibilities and purview perpetually continue to develop, just like any other job. We cannot do, or take care of, everything.