LibGuides at U of M Libraries

The LibGuides documentation for the University of Minnesota Libraries. All users, regardless of previous LibGuides usage, should review the content on this guide.

How to create a course guide

  1. Go to https://umn.libapps.com/libguides/  
  2. Select the University of Minnesota Shibboleth link.  
  3. Select "LibGuides" in the upper left to get back to the main screen.  
  4. Go to "Create Guide." Create a Guide from the dashboard  
  5. Select "copy content/layout from an existing guide."  
  6. Select "Blueprint: Course Guide by Amy Drayer"  
  7. Enter guide name (format: Course Designator: Course Title — see example below). To do this, please verify the course title against the course catalog.  
  8. Enter guide description using the following guidelines/text: "This guide covers search tools for research in topics related to..." OR "This guide is designed for new researchers to find articles, sources, and get started with research in topics related to..."  
  9. Select guide type "course guide."  
  10. Select group assignment "UMN" and share guide content "Internal" (unless you have plans to share beyond UMN Libraries).
    Creating a course guide with all fields selected. Steps 5-10.
  11. Select "create guide."  

How to edit metadata

In order for the page to automatically show up in Canvas, the metadata needs to align with the course information. 

  1. Select the "gear," then select "Guide Metadata." LibGuides editing screen with the gear selected and “Guide Metadata” option circled.
     
  2. Select "Custom Metadata."  
  3. Select "empty" and enter the course information: Name: "courseID" (for every course) Value: course designator/course number (e.g. AMIN/1003) You can add multiple course designators if it's cross-listed.  Tip: If it's listed as a Writing intensive course, don't forget the W!  
  4. Go to the checkbox under "public." The Custom Metadata options, steps 2-6

Note: If you must create pages for different sections (because the course content is different between sections), add that to the URL as well (e.g. WRIT/1301/005). Be sure to have a maintenance plan as section topics tend to change and section numbers are changed each semester. These will need to be updated more frequently than typical course guides.

How to add content

  1. Go to "Add Box - Column 1."
  2. Select "create new box" or "reuse existing box." Instructions for reusing a box can be found in the "Reuse a box" tab of this guide. If creating your own box, add the box name with sentence casing (e.g. Find articles, Find background information). Try to avoid labels based on the source type (e.g. encyclopedias, databases, journals). Box type should be "standard" and position should be "top of the column." Add additional boxes as needed.
  3. Add databases, links/assets, or embed videos in the boxes. You can reuse boxes from any guide on various pages the same way you would reuse content from the reusable boxes guide. (For more information on adding these types of materials, check out the "Add or edit a link/asset" tab or the "Add a book or journal" tab of this guide. For information on how to add photos and videos, visit the "Add a photo or video" tab of this guide.)

    Note: When adding a link/asset/widget, you get the option to "link" or to "copy." In general, we want to have them linked so that if one box is updated centrally, they are all updated. If it is copied, each individual link will need to be updated separately.

Canvas integration tips

Our Course Materials colleagues prebuild the Library Course Materials page for every course at the University. Every Library Course Materials page includes  three links. The top link is always the link to the LibGuide for either the course or the subject that is applicable to the course. (The other two are student support services and study space finder). So, the vast majority of the ~15,000 pages we build every semester only have these three links. About 17% of them have course reserves listed in addition to the three links. 

Screenshot of what the Library Course Materials look like in Canvas

Some instructors remove the menu item. To bring it back, instructors can follow these instructions.

Quick instructions for publishing your guide

For longer instructions, see the Submitting your guide for review box on the Accessibility subpage. 

 

  Ensure the guide has the course metadata added

  Check the Rubric for compliance
  Preview the guide using WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool)
  Reduce your browser to mobile width (about 320px wide) to preview what the page will look like on a mobile device.
  Navigate back to the editing page. Select the "Unpublished" button, which will create a pop up. From here, you can change the status.
  "Submit for Review" to put your guide or box in the queue for the review board. Changes made after the submission will not be reflected on the approved guide. Feel free to leave us a message.
  Then, select the first (top) save button.

If the LibGuide (or box) has been approved and published, you will receive an email from Springshare saying it's been published, and an email from the review board if we made any changes to the guide. 

If the guide does not meet the accessibility standards outlined in the documentation (especially in the Rubric), we may return the guide to you with instructions to fix the guide. You may then resubmit the guide for review.

Last Updated: Jul 2, 2025 11:17 AM