[WEB4LIB] Re: Library Web Page Use

[Dan Lester]

Monday, December 10, 2001, 11:18:02 AM, you wrote:

CH> Could also be "Re:  University home page as public relations magazine"

CH> While I haven't been able to find the use statistics that I asked the
CH> list members for, I have received plenty of commisseration concerning
CH> library links on institution home pages.  It's also
CH> interesting to realize that we're not the only university out there
CH> that has been outmaneuvered by marketing/PR types.

I'd say that the university homepages are, in general, becoming
marketing tools.  The marketing and PR folks have realized that this
is how most corporations are doing things, and thus they should do the
same.  And, they may well be right.

NOTE: Heretical thoughts follow.

CH> In the Penn State study mentioned below, Astroff says this:
CH> "Almost a quarter of the colleges and universities that belong to
CH> ARL do not provide an immediately visble active link to the library
CH> on the university home page....  An unambiguous conclusion of this
CH> study is that the Web page designers of 24 percent of ARL member
CH> institutions do not consider the library a primary destination
CH> for their Web visitors."

Maybe this is a good thing.  As I noted last week, my observation is
that the only large (i.e. ARL type) that do promote the library are
those that "have a library worth promoting".  (Don't get excited, I've
not checked to see which libraries are in that 24 percent....if you're
in one of them, don't take offense).  Also, does anyone who is coming
to the home page from off campus really care about the library?
Should they?

CH> She then gives several examples of home page as public relations
CH> magazine, such as Kent State, Southern Illinois, and the University
CH> of Nebraska, and then concludes by saying, "The interior pages
CH> of these sites include links to the libraries along the same patterns
CH> identified above. But if university home pages begin to cover only
CH> what look like press releases, users will find themselves
CH> yet another step away from online resources. Many of the home pages
CH> examined gave the weather report.  They would better sever their
CH> users if they gave direct access to the library."

First, I'll assume you meant to "serve" the users rather than "sever"
them, though we all have users we'd love to sever into multiple
pieces.

If the university home page is a marketing tool, the library is, like
it or not, a key factor in the selection of a school by a prospective
student.  If the student wants to go to Harvard, he probably already
knows it has great libraries and doesn't need a link to them.  If, on
the other hand, he's like the vast majority of prospective students,
he doesn't know or care if the university has a library.  Unless you
have a good BI program or other marketing ON CAMPUS, he may not know
the library exists for the first couple of years anyway.  If your
institution or library has a sensible pattern of domain names, the
student should be able to find it anyway.  For example, we're
library.boisestate.edu, not alblib.boisestate.edu,
albertsons.boisestate.edu, albertsonslibrary.boisestate.edu,
lib-www.boisestate.edu, or other similar patterns, the likes of which
I've seen many times elsewhere.

If the marketing is to others than prospective students (boosters,
wealthy potential donors, etc.), then again the library doesn't
matter. The boosters are probably jumping straight to the athletics
site anyway (which probably has its own domain name) and the donors
are being hustled one on one anyway.  A great many libraries don't
permit use of their collections by outsiders, so why worry about
marketing to them?

CH> The question is, "Do we fight'em, or like some have mentioned
CH> here, join'em?"

I'd suggest that we do neither.  We ignore them.  We're not likely to
change them.  They don't matter much to us anyway for the various
reasons stated above.

Happy holidays

dan



-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
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