Web Guidelines: MIT Libraries

Subject Pages

These guidelines are meant to assist you in creating pages with the following characteristics:

We recommend that all subject pages have a similar layout, but flexible content.

Example of brief subject page: Education Subject Guide
Example of extended subject page: Physics Subject Guide

Suggested content & features will vary by discipline
Selector's name, title, and email address (photo optional)	Example: Tracy Gabridge Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Librarian tag@mit.edu
Dynamic links to databases & e-journals in Vera Use shortcut URLs for Vera subjects	Example: Databases & E-Journals for Aeronautics The links above will connect to the Vera database of MIT's electronic resources.
Some possible categories to include	professional organizations and associations web sites that include primary documents quality metasites for that discipline related MIT sites, departments, course pages new book lists unique local resources library services lists of print journals, including call numbers suggested LC subject headings for Barton searches (if appropriate) recommendation of useful search strategies in Barton may be useful for certain topics
Some features to consider	a form for user feedback a place for users to suggest additional links a "new" icon, or listing of recently added items by date what's popular (list most frequently clicked on items) (provided by our web logs - coming eventually!)

Tips for quality pages These basic features can help increase a page's usefulness.
Include brief annotations, rather than just lists of links, where possible.
You may want to create a separate page with visible URLs (useful for printing). (example)
Include cross-references to related subject guides & course pages in the MIT Libraries.
Multiple views (i.e. alphabetical and topical) may be helpful for very large subject pages.
If something is available to the MIT community only, clearly indicate it (since many of our pages are visited by outside users).
Keep links up to date using automated link-checking (this will be provided by web contacts in the future, but will still require human decision-making for the broken links).
Revise your page at least once per semester, but more frequently if possible.