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- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the authors
Whether you call them research guides, subject guides or pathfinders, web-based guides are a great way to create customized support tools for a specific audience: a class, a group, or anyone engaging in research. Studies show that library guides are often difficult, confusing, or overwhelming, causing users to give up and just fall back on search engines such as Google. How can librarians create more effective, less confusing, and simply better research guides?
In Modern Pathfinders: Creating Better Research Guides, author Jason Puckett takes proven ideas from instructional design and user experience web design and combines them into easy-to-understand principles for making your research guides better teaching tools. It doesn't matter what software your library uses; the advice and techniques in this book will help you create guides that are easier for your users to understand and more effective to use.
Jason Puckett is also the author of the ACRL publication Zotero: A Guide for Librarians, Researchers, and Educators.
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Aaron Dobbs
Introduction
About This Book
What Is Instructional Theory?
Searching the LIS Literature
A Note about LibGuides
My Background
Notes
References
Chapter 1: Research Guides and Instructional Theory
What Is a Research Guide?
What Are Research Guides For?
Terminology Used in This Book
Common Problems in Creating Research Guides
How Can Guides Teach?
Notes
References
Chapter 2: Learning Objectives in Research Guides
What Is a Learning Objective?
Defining Your Learning Objectives
The Stem
The Action Verb
The Outcome
"Chunking"
Putting Objectives to Work in Your Research Guides
Building a Guide Structure from Your Objectives
Notes
References
Chapter 3: Learning Styles
Introduction
What Are Learning Styles?
Learning Styles: Three Models
Perceptual Preference Modality
Kolb Experiential Learning Model
Gardner's Multiple Intelligences
Applying Learning Style Theory to Library Research Guides
Examples: Using Learning Styles in Research Guides
Visual
Interactive/Kinesthetic/Tactile
Auditory
Sequential
Drawbacks and Practical Concerns
Summing Up: Some Simple Best Practices
Notes
References
Chapter 4: Designing and Writing for Better Usability
Introduction
User Experience
What Is UX?
UX and Online Instruction
Visual Design for Nondesigners
Using Images
Focal Points
Unintentional Focal Points
Simplicity and Clarity
Consistency of Design
How Users Read on the Web
The F Shape
Above the Fold
Writing for the Web
Making Clear and Useful Links
Annotating Links
What to Cut?
Example
Summing Up: Some Simple Best Practices
Notes
References
Chapter 5: Assessment
What Are You Assessing?
Using Rubrics and Analyzing Guide Content
How to Use Rubrics
Assessment Example: Rubric
User Surveys
How to Use Surveys
Assessment Examples: Surveys
Web Analytics
What Analytics Assessment Can Tell You
Assessment Examples: Analytics
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 6: Planning, Coordinating, and Administrating Guides
Introduction
Goals
Tying Guide Goals to Instruction Program Goals
Sample Instruction Goals with Research Guide Components
The Research Guide Coordinator
Control: How Much Is Too Much?
Guide Coordinator Case Study
Maintenance and Administrative Tasks
Regular and Periodic Maintenance
Accounts and Ownership
Collecting and Reporting Data
Upgrading and Overhauling
Training
Extending Your Reach
Classroom Instruction
Make Guides Findable
Faculty Outreach
Social Media
Library Website
Your Mileage May Vary
Reuse, Reduce, Recycle
Establishing Best Practices
Notes
References
Author Biography