Best Practices for UCL LibGuides

Guidance related to subject guides only.

• Profile box
• Add an individual profile box
• Add a team profile box
• Glossary for subject guides

A profile box should be included on every subject guide homepage to provide users with information on the librarian, or team, who supports them. A profile box is included in the subject guide template. When you make a copy of the template for your own subject guide, you will need to change the profile box. Instructions on how to do this, either for an individual librarian, or a library team, are provided below. For consistency across subject guides, please ensure that the profile box is at the top right of the Welcome page and Help and training page.

If you are the sole liaison librarian supporting a subject area, you can easily replace the profile box in the template with your own. To do this, click on the cogwheel symbol just above the existing profile box and select your own name from the list. 

Editing your profile

If you want to make any edits to your profile, you can do this from the LibGuides main page (which you first access when you login).In the edit profile screen, there are two tabs. The first is to edit what appears in your profile box. The second is if you want to have your own profile page, where you can add more detailed information.

Edits you can make to the profile box include:

• give your profile box a name (e.g.Your Librarian, or Your Library)
• upload a new photo
• add contacting information and providing links to relevant social media accounts

Best practices for image size suggest that an image is 240 pixels wide if it's appearing in the right hand column so please adjust your image accordingly before uploading it.

If you are part of a team supporting a subject area and prefer to have a team profile instead, first delete the profile box in the template, and then:

• Click on the link to Add a new box
• Select the Reuse box tab
• Type 'reusable' in the guide box to select the Reusable content guide
• Type 'your librarians' in the box underneath, and select 'Your librarians'
• Check the box next to Copy, then click Save

You can then tailor the box to include an image of your team / library and team contact information.

Consistent terminology and vocabulary across subject guides will help our users find what they need and maintain a high level of accessibility. Please use the following terms in your guides.