Terminology on web pages (databases and help)

[Julia Schult]

I'd ask myself "databases of what?"  Our users are after
something particular: a specific fact, a book, an article,
or a web page.

Our pages start off with friendly buttons offering "Search
for Books" "Search for Articles" "Search the Web"
and on those pages are links to databases that will find
books, articles, or web pages.  This seems to work really
well for our users.

The next layer down has "Government Documents" "Ready
Reference Tools on the Web" "Interlibrary Loan" and "Help"
although we are going to change those to something more
recognizable to the average user.  Government Documents we
are integrating into the first three categories, "Ready
Reference Tools" deserves some common language label such as
"Quick Answer Web Tools", and I'm toying with the Help
button saying "Don't Panic" instead.  (The alt= text would
still say "Help".)  Any comments on using the "Don't Panic"
button instead of a Help button?

--
---Julia E. Schult
Access/Electronic Services Librarian
Elmira College
Jschult at elmira.edu