Library Web Page Use

[VanderHart, Robert]

We have our own web server in the library, but we've had to confront the
campus PR mentality from time to time.  A couple of years ago our chancellor
put forth a mandate basically stating that all campus web sites had to have
the same "look and feel" as the main site.  Of course the main campus site
is little more than a PR tool; it speaks volumes to me that the campus's Web
Advisory Committee is headed by the Vice Chancellor for Public Relations,
not someone from the Office of Research (a primary focus of our
institution).  

Our library's web team, which I headed at the time, effectively demonstrated
to the IS Web Services folks that the campus site's "look and feel" was
completely inadequate for our purposes.  To satisfy the mandate I put
together a small set of pages about the library that live on the main campus
site, including a message from the director, issues of our library
newsletter, and a page describing the library and its services, which have
prominent links to our "real" site.

Is this confusing for our users?  Possibly, but since our school is
primarily a post-baccalaureate institution, our primary users know about the
library.  And the PR site at http://www.umassmed.edu/library is one of the
biggest referrers every month to our real site at
http://library.umassmed.edu.

Did I have any other choice?  I don't think so, given the chancellor's
mandate.  But hopefully the PR folks won't be bothering us for a while.



Robert Vander Hart
Electronic Resources Librarian
The Lamar Soutter Library
University of Massachusetts Medical School
55 Lake Avenue N
Worcester  MA  01655

Voice: (508) 856-3290
Fax: (508) 856-5899
Email: Robert.VanderHart at umassmed.edu
Web: http://library.umassmed.edu