[WEB4LIB] Re: Library home pages

[Laura Cohen]

Andrew Mutch poses these questions....

>>Is it serving as an information gateway [or portal] to library resources?
>>Is it intended to serve as a directory to information about the library?
>>Is it intended to establish a "presence" for the library on the WWW?
>>
>>Will it try to do all 3 and more??

and Bob Duncan replies....

>Having a common front is an important part of the seamlessness which can
>make a site useful -- do we really want a user to have know where to find
>library hours or the link to Lexis-Nexis or whatever from three (or more)
>separate places?  If we librarians do our job properly and well, we should
>be able to point to it all from one entry point.

I've got an article coming out in the May issue of College & Research
Libraries, written with a colleague, that looks into three possible
purposes for an academic library Web site similar to what Andrew lays out.
Comparing library sites of two-year schools with research universities, we
found that the sites we investigated (50 of each) met all of these purposes
in one site. The degree to which these purposes were met varied extensively
among sites. We also looked at where on the site, relative to the main
landing page, the content relating to these purposes was found. There
appear to be different solutions to this depending on the size and
complexity of the library or library system and its parent institution. So,
I would agree with Bob that seamlessness is preferred, but would also say
that the manifestation of this seamlessness--and the degree to which it is
carried out--is the challenge. 

We're undergoing a site redesign here, too, and are experiencing similar
organizational and terminology challenges to those expressed on this list.
This is comforting!

Laura Cohen

__________________________
Laura B. Cohen
Network Services Librarian
University at Albany  Libraries     
Albany, NY 12222                              518-442-3492 
LCOHEN at cnsvax.albany.edu       518-442-3567 (FAX)