Localizing Guidance for Research Guides: Developing Shared Understandings for Creating Research Guides with Internal Focus Groups

At Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Research Guides guidelines are maintained by a workgroup referred to as the LibGuide Curators. As part of ongoing work, the workgroup considered revisions to the guidelines and looked to other academic libraries for inspiration. What we found was that guidelines for research guides are often aligned with values and norms that are broadly accepted within a library unit or promoted at the school level. For the LibGuide Curators at VCU, our values centered around user experience, accessibility, and a culture of care. During an initial evaluation of the existing guidelines with an eye to aligning existing guidelines with organizational values, another important factor was elevated: how existing creators were already using LibGuides. To further refine the clarity of the guidance, and to develop working definitions of jargon within the LibGuides platform, the LibGuides curators conducted a series of focus groups with LibGuide authors at our institution.