Adding Subjects and Tags to your LibGuides is a great way to make them more discoverable, especially when they pertain to inter- or multi-disciplinary topics. Utilizing these features not only allows users to browse by Subject or Tag, but it also improves the relevancy rankings of search results for users of the LibGuides search bar.

Subjects

Subjects are pre-determined tags that can only be added or changed by DUX. LibGuide creators can assign subjects to their guides to associate them with particular academic departments, majors, or subject areas. No librarian “owns” exclusive use of a subject tag; however, if a librarian feels a subject tag is being misused, they can contact DUX at libweb@indiana.edu.

When a creator associates a guide with a certain Subject, that guide will then appear in a subject list of all guides (course guides, research guides, and topic guides) that share that Subject. For example, the Business Subject page lists all the guides that are associated with the subject “Business,” including the course guide BUS A551: Tax Research. Additionally, this subject page lists all experts for that subject area. The subject page is a great opportunity to show off all the guides in a subject area and the librarians who can help with research in that subject.

DUX can add and manage subjects or add you as a subject expert in LibGuides at any time.

How to assign Subjects to your LibGuide

1. Click the pencil icon to the right of the ‘Subjects:’ field at the top of the LibGuide editing window. [include screenshot of this area, with ‘Subjects:’ field highlighted]
2. In the window that opens, click into the drop-down menu to see a scrollable list of existing Subjects.
3. Peruse the list of existing Subjects and assign relevant Subjects to your guide by clicking on them in the list. [include screenshot of dropdown list of existing Subjects]
   1. To determine whether a specific Subject already exists, begin typing the target Subject the text entry field. As you type, existing Subjects that contain the typed string will populate the drop-down list.
   2. We advise assigning 1-3 subject tags per guide.

Tags

Springshare also enables creators to add custom tags to their LibGuides. Unlike Subjects, these tags are free-text and are mostly user-generated. That said, below we provide some pre-existing tags which we encourage creators to add to their guides to specify both their guide’s intended audience and relevant cross-/inter-disciplinary concepts.

Audience tags

• Undergraduate/Novice
• Graduate/Researcher
• Professional/Instructor

Cross-/inter-disciplinary concept tags

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Humanities
• Social Sciences
• STEM
• Area Studies
• Performing Arts
• Scholarly publishing
• Data
• Visual media
• [More?]

More specific tags

We encourage LibGuide creators to utilize existing tags as much as possible to maximize discoverability and cohesion across our LibGuides, but we also recognize that creators may wish to tag their guides with more granular or specialized terms to improve searchability. Creators may also generate their own tags if a desired tag does not already exist within the tag database.

How to add tags to your LibGuide

1. Click the pencil icon to the right of the ‘Tags:’ field at the top of the LibGuide editing window. [include screenshot of this area, with ‘Tags:’ field highlighted]
2. In the window that opens, click into the text entry field to see a scrollable dropdown list of existing tags.
3. Peruse the list of existing tags and add appropriate tags to your guide by clicking on them in the list. [include screenshot of dropdown list of existing tags]
   1. To determine whether a specific term already exists in the tag database, begin typing the desired word or phrase in the text entry field. As you type, existing tags that contain the typed string will populate the dropdown list.
   2. Please limit the number of tags to five per guide.
4. We recommend using existing tags to increase discoverability and cohesion across our LibGuides, but creators may also create their own tags if a desired term does not already exist within the tag database.
   1. To do so, type the desired term in the text entry field and press the ‘Enter/Return’ key.
   2. To mitigate redundancy, please refrain from adding tags that reiterate terms that already appear in the ‘Subjects’ field. For example, if ‘Business’ is selected as a Subject for a LibGuide, do not also add ‘business’ as a tag.

Background and rationale

The the approach to tagging described above was devised following an evaluation of LibGuide documentation across several academic libraries. We found that other academic libraries have implemented LibGuide tagging in one of two ways:

• As another facet for categorizing their LibGuides
• As a tool for search engine optimization

The approach to tagging described above utilizes aspects of both implementations.

On the first approach, institutions develop their own controlled vocabularies to organize their LibGuides with more granularity. LibGuide creators then select tags from this set list to further specify information about the guide’s scope, adding information such as intended audience, sub-field, larger discipline, or general topic of focus (see University of Arizona’s guidelines; Emory University’s guidelines).

The second (and more popular) method takes a less structured approach to tagging. LibGuide creators are encouraged to add their own self-generated tags with terms related to their guide. This approach is implemented to optimize relevancy rankings in Springshare’s own LibGuide search engine. There is variance across institutions in how this strategy is implemented: for example, Widener University advises LibGuide creators only to add up to 5 tags per guide, but Florida International University does not specify a limit, and even encourages creators to include common misspellings of potential search terms as tags to maximize discoverability through the Search bar.