Thoughts on Web Site Subject Headings

[Blake Carver]

I've always read that your web site structure should not reflect your 
companies organizational chart.
This makes sense, since people outside of your company do not know, or 
care, how your company is organized, nor do they understand the terms you use.

BUT, has anyone given any thought to this as it applies (or does not apply) 
to the organization of a university, and the "topics" this creates for a 
library web site. This will require a bit of explanation on my end.

For example, here at OSU we have the college organized like this:

Colleges and Schools
     School of Allied Medical
       Medical Technology
       Occupational Therapy
     College of the Arts
        Department of Art
        School of Art
     College of Social And Behavioral Colleges
         Psychology
         Sociology

And the list goes on and on....

The Subject headings and topics we use on our library web site in no way 
reflects the over all college structure or terms that are used everyday by 
everyone on campus, nor do we follow DDC or LC.

Would it make any sense to use the terms the college uses for organizing 
pages that use topics or subject heading for organization?

Here's one thought:
Since people on campus are already aware that as a Psychology major they 
are part of the College of Social & Behavioral Colleges,  it seems our 
on-campus audience would be aware of these categories, and we would be 
fitting into their model of how things are organized. People outside the 
college would not have this built in knowledge.

This would apply to the way we organize resources on our site by topic, and 
not the overall site.



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Blake Carver
Web Librarian
The Ohio State University Libraries
carver.50 at osu.edu
  see also: www.lisnews.com