Creating a Research Guide

The Giovale Library staff develop and maintain research guides for many topics and specific courses taught at Westminster College. The research guides are developed by means of a collaborative process between the faculty and the library staff. It takes, on average, three to four weeks to develop a research guide and have the material published online for users.

Ongoing maintenance of the research guides is completed each semeseter. The links to websites and databases are reviewed to ensure they are still available and accurate. At any time, faculty members are invited and encouraged, to submit changes or additions to the subject guides they use. An online form is available for easily submitting changes to the research guides.

Research Guide Development Process

2. When meeting with the librarian, the faculty member and librarian will discuss resources which will be included in the research guide, such as books, databases, and websites.

3. After the list of resources are identified which are to be included in the research guide, the librarian with whom you have been working will notify the Systems librarian that the guide is ready to be developed and put online.

4. The Systems librarian and Web Design Specialist will contact you to see if there are any special graphics, photos, or other considerations to take into account for the design of the Research Guide before building the mock-up of the research guide for you to review online.

5. Once you have had time to review the mock-up of the research guide online, changes and revisions can be made in conjuction with the Systems librarian and the Web Design Specialist to make sure the final guide is satisfactory and meets the needs you had in mind when developing the guide.

6. After all revisions have been made to the research guide, the Web Design Specialist will publish the research guide online for users.

Librarians by Subject Area

Kerri Shaffer Carter, Reference/Instruction Librarian: Philosophy, Religion, Business, Sociology, Music, Literature: Romance Languages, Information Resources, Library Science

Jennifer Foy, Systems Librarian: Political Science, Law, Fine Arts, Science, Technology, Films (Educational, Documentary, & Feature)

David Hales, Librarian: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation, Agriculture, General Works, Medicine, Military & Naval Science, Psychology

Diane Raines, Technical Services/Serials Librarian: Language, Literature, Education, History