Faculty User Guide

What is a LibGuide?

Ranger College’s Golemon Library has implemented a way to organize and showcase library resources and services available to Ranger faculty and students for research and study.

LibGuides are a content management and information sharing system designed specifically for libraries.  The platform allows for easy navigation through and instruction on core and relevant resources in a particular subject field, class, or assignment.

Furthermore, this platform effectively invites collaboration between librarians and instructors to meet the research needs of a particular department, class, or assignment.

A well-designed LibGuide will point to suggested resources that support an assignment or course material.  

Guides will pool resources to support your students research...and your own

Why use LibGuides?

The LibGuide platform allows us to:

• Organize core and relevant resources in your field into one 24 hour accessible webpage, simply give your students the URL.
• Combine features of social networks, wikis, and blogs on a particular subject.
• Make RSS and podcast feeds, social bookmarking, and other technologies easy to use.
• Anything we create is printable, so it can easily be used as handouts.
• We can update the information on the page BEFORE, DURING and AFTER you teach a research or library-related lecture, so students can have access to updated material.
• We can integrate chat technology into your guides for constant communication with your students.
• Integrate the guide into your Blackboard or Canvas class seamlessly.
• Create Guides for Subjects, Courses, or even Assignments.
• Stop reinventing the wheel. – Someone else already has created a Guide for many topics, such as conducting research or using various citation styles.  You can copy that work and edit it for your specific requirements, or just copy it and use it as is.
• Direct your students straight to the resources you want them to have.

What are the Benefits to Students?

• Teaches at the point-of-need to your students.
• Information is chunked and resources presented in a linear, intuitive fashion.
• Meets the needs of students with diverse learning styles.
• Convenient for students who can't (or won't) come to the library.
• Students can access from dorms, from home, and from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Beneficial for distance learners who don't need to learn the whole library.
• Great resource for students in motion. Students can start their preliminary research from the LibGuide on campus and continue to access the same resources from work, home, or traveling.
• Allows students to focus on the relevant and sift out the less relevant.
• Visually demonstrates that there are great resources, in multiple formats, on even the most difficult topic.  That reassurance builds the confidence of students who need to get started on their research.