The role of the library in student and teacher education

In today's higher education, where students increasingly rely on digital resources and online environments, libraries are looking for effective ways to provide structured, contextualized, and personalized support. One of the most widely used tools currently used by higher education libraries for this purpose is LibGuides, a commercial tool for creating online guides.

The LibGuides content management system allows for the combination of different educational materials to provide information related to a specific topic, course, subject area, research task, or specific skills (e.g., citation, source evaluation, database searching). Its key features are thematic organization, interactivity, integration with e-learning platforms, and adaptability to user needs.

Some of the possible uses include the following:

Teaching support

Librarians, in collaboration with faculty, create LibGuides that accompany a particular course. These guides include relevant literature, search guides, databases, assignments, evaluation criteria, and academic writing guidelines. Such integration allows students to find everything they need to successfully learn in one digital space.

Developing information literacy

Libraries use LibGuides to design educational content that supports the development of information and digital literacy. These include guides to using the database, distinguishing between types of sources, evaluating information and avoiding plagiarism.

Independent and lifelong learning

They serve as tools for independent research and training. They enable continuous access to educational resources and flexible, self-regulated learning. They offer structured sources, recommendations and practical guidelines that help students and researchers develop information skills and critical thinking. Thus, they become a dynamic tool that empowers users to actively shape their own knowledge.

Research support

Students preparing their final, master's or doctoral theses use LibGuides as a starting point for research. Librarians prepare guides that include relevant scholarly databases, literature management tools (e.g. Zotero, Mendeley), and links to scholarly repositories and open access.

Specialized user needs

They can also be created for specific user groups (e.g. students with disabilities, researchers, international students) or for specific topics (e.g. academic writing, copyright, open access publishing).

Examples of using the LibGuides platform:

• Libguides community
• Libguides on copyright
• Libguides on the basics of the Harvard citation system
• LibGuides on open publishing.