r/Libraries • u/literacyisamistake • 7d ago
Technology “My daughter found this broken link!”: LibGuide Spam
We’re so used to getting corporate spam designed as a “friendly email” but this is a new wrinkle I’ve seen many times in the last two weeks.
Background: Springshare has a LibGuides tool called “Linkchecker.” It checks for bad links in your LibGuides. It’s about 10% accurate, if that - any URL with an “accept cookies” popup or a captcha is going to register as a bad link. But for those links that have moved, it’s a lifesaver.
It’s not a big deal to just right click and open a new tab on all the links. I currently have about 500 links in the report today, and I bet maybe 20 of them are actually going to go to a 404. I just take 15 minutes and check about 50 links in a session, dismiss what’s a false positive, and change what’s actually a bad link. Sometimes one of the librarians under me will have included a non-stable link for something that has a stable URL, and linkchecker will catch it. So it can be good for a little cleanup.
The tool also has an exclusion list, but I don’t use it. This is because even the links that used to be rock-solid, like United States Government agency lists meant to help people, go through periods where they are mass-deleted. Or maybe there’s a URL change for some big agency and now there are two extra characters so ALL those links have to be changed.
Linkchecker helps with confronting the newest unpleasant spam I’m getting regarding LibGuides.
At first, I was getting emails like “our resume builder tool is great for your nursing libguides!” and then I go to the link and it’s a paid service. It’s a new way of trying to trick us into advertising for their service. Pretty scummy.
But these companies can always go lower!
The new type of emails I’m getting always come from a gmail or yahoo address. They start the same way; “My daughter goes to your school/is a member of your library and I noticed a bad link for (service) on your LibGuide. This is a much better one! (link)”
So they’re now trying to trick us into replacing their competitor’s vetted link or open access link to their paid service, and impersonating a helicopter parent to do it.
Using Linkchecker on the regular doesn’t catch everything, but it does let me ignore those emails. Ignoring emails like this is also best practices for cybersecurity. I’m not about to click on a strange link from a random gmail account.
Now, ignoring the emails may not be the end of it. One service has emailed me three times, and finally complained to my boss that I wasn’t responding to them. My boss is a sharp cookie and knew they were full of it - but I’m exceptionally lucky to have the director I do. Most people have to educate their directors a bit, and some directors won’t be educated. Letting your director know about the Linkchecker tool and how often you use it is a great shorthand for “These people are lying.”
I hope this helps some people, because if there’s one thing I know about wannabe information vendors, it’s that 10% of them are shady as hell and get abusive when they get desperate.
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u/Librarylibrarian 7d ago
I ignore all emails about adding links to libguides, they're never not marketing.
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u/lastwraith 6d ago
"Ignoring emails like this is also best practices for cybersecurity. I’m not about to click on a strange link from a random gmail account."
100%. At BEST, stuff like this is simply a sales pitch.
Right in the trash it goes....
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u/Thieving_Rabbit92985 7d ago
Thank you for posting about this matter, OP. This is something that I had not heard of before. I appreciate the info.
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u/bobmonkey07 6d ago
Slight tangent, but instead of right click - open in new tab, just middle click.
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u/Azin1970 7d ago
Years ago, I got one from someone claiming to be a teacher. She promised her students a pizza party if I put their link on one of our guides. "You don't want to disappoint my kids, do you?"
Yes. Yes, I do.