[WEB4LIB] Re: Library Web Page Use

[Jennifer Heise]

> 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?

Since, increasingly, 'campus' users are coming in to the home page of
the institution from 'off campus', to claim that 'off campus' (i.e.,
those not coming from a University IP address) users don't care about
the library is disingenuous.

-- 
/   Jennifer Heise, Helpdesk/Librarian, Lehigh Univ. Information
Resources
\ \ Fairchild-Martindale Library, 8A Packer Ave, Bethlehem PA 18015 
  / Phone (610) 758-3072          Email: jahb at lehigh.edu

"Comment is free, but facts are on expenses." -- Tom Stoppard