And now for something completely different

[Guy Dobson, BCCLS]

Many thanks to all the WEB4LIBrarians who have sent in good suggestions 
for BCCLS' New Ready Reference device. Some of the comments made me want 
to explain the site a little more so here goes...

From: Kathleen Muldowney
> I like the new layout but not crazy about the pop-up windows, it takes 
> twice as long as usual to get to the sites.  Any way around that lag?

The pop-up windows are there in an attempt to avoid scrolling through 
a long list of links which often makes me feel like I'm trying to find 
a URL in a haystack. I might be able to make the pop up windows happen 
faster but the real time lag happens after you select a link to one of 
the actual sites as this causes an intermediate page to load (and tally 
the fact that the site has been accessed) before acutally taking you to 
the place you'd like to go. This price is being paid in order to accumulate 
the data which you'll find on the site map page re: how often each site is 
used. If this information does not turn out to be useful the intermediate 
tallying pages will be taken out but I expect that it will help to 
identify which sites are useful and which are useless.

From: Vincent A. Mariner
>  I think it would be nice if you could add a "Close Window" link to the 
>  pop-ups.

I hesitate to add a button that will use up valuable real estate and only 
do that which the "X" in the top right corner of the window already does.

>From Nancy Sosna Bohm:
> <script language="javascript">
> <!--hide
> setTimeout('this.close()',3000)
> end hide-->
> </script>

I like the timeout code but am not sure that I want to put it in the 
Ready Reference site. The pop-up window which offers lists of links 
and sub-categories will close when you select a site and if you don't 
select a site it's contents will be replaced when you return to the 
Ready Ref front page and choose a different category. I'd like to set 
it up so that when you're all done with Ready Reference and want to 
surf on to something else whichever sub-window is open will close. 
I hate it when I leave a web site and it leaves many (or even any) 
extra browser windows littering my desktop.

From: Debra Lords
> However, what if someone wants to close the window faster?  I'm
> with Nancy on this.  The web page reader looses a lot of control
> over what happens with what they see.  Wherever you can allow
> them to at least maintain the feeling of control, it is wise to
> do so.  It makes your page more of a pleasure to use.

I agree that it's important to give the surfer as much control as 
possible. I think that user-friendly = intuitive, consistent, seamless,
etc. control while navigating through a site. However, if someone wants 
to close a window fast they really should remember the "X" in the top 
right corner.

From: Eric Hellman
> Not Bad!
> we have a job opening for a digital librarian if you're interested or 
> know anyone else who might be.

Thanks, Eric. That's a real compliment!

The site will go live today and will be featured in tomorrow's edition of 
This Week's Useful-URLs @ http://www.bccls.org/reference/Useful-URLs.shtml

Thanks again for the constructive criticism,
Guy