Head, Government Information & Data Archives University of Missouri Library
The University of Missouri Library's "Prices and Wages by Decade" LibGuide (https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages) has drawn over 5.5 million page views, and currently receives roughly 2,100 hits daily. Based on links to digitized publications found in free online libraries (mostly HathiTrust and the Federal Reserve's FRASER), it points to primary sources showing consumer prices of common items, juxtaposed with average wages for every decade back to colonial times. Most of the sources we use are in the public domain either because they are federal documents or because they have aged out of copyright.
This poster summarizes key elements responsible for the guide's success: an emphasis on linking to exact pages within books, gearing for the general public rather than just our own affiliates, and optimization for mobile devices, to name a few. Except for staff time, it cost nothing to build, yet it provides great exposure for our library and University.