As we continue to develop our Research Guides collection, you may find that existing guides need to be retired or merged with new guides.
When to Retire (or Pause) a Guide
There are many factors that can indicate it is time to retire a guide (adapted from Harvard Library):
- Statistics show low guide use, making it no longer worth the time to update its content.
- For course specific guides: the course is no longer being offered, or has been significantly modified.
- The discipline or topic has changed significantly, outdating the content.
- A liaison or subject expert in a given area has left their role, and no current staff have the time or expertise to update it.
Retiring a Guide
If you’re ready to retire a guide, you can delete, unpublish, or make your guide private.
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Delete a Guide
You can always delete a guide, but once deleted, you cannot recover its content. This can pose problems for any mapped content that may originate from the guide. In most cases, unpublishing or making a guide private might be sufficient.
- Unpublish a Guide (Recommended)
Unpublishing a guide removes it from public view, LibGuides search, and omits the guide from inclusion on our Research Guides homepage. Even if users have the link, they won’t be able to view your guide. Unpublishing a guide is an effective way to “archive” its content and assets for future reporting and reuse.
- Make your Guide Private
Similar to unpublishing a guide, making a guide private removes it from LibGuides search and our Research Guides homepage. However, private guides can still be viewed if a user has the URL.