[WEB4LIB] WEB4LIB digest 2167
Kathryn Waggoner
waggonek at gvsu.edu
Thu Mar 15 16:03:58 EST 2001
I am attending a conference right now and will be back in my office on Tuesday, March 20.
--Kathryn
>>> "web4lib at webjunction.org" 03/15/01 15:39 >>>
WEB4LIB Digest 2167
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) Re: What's good design? :-)
by "Garwood, Steve" <sgarwood at camden.lib.nj.us>
2) First collaborative 24x7 live digital reference service?
by "Sloan, Bernie" <bernies at uillinois.edu>
3) Re: Free Britannica Going Away
by Daniel Messer <dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us>
4) Re: SOLVED Re: Internet Explorer Restrictions
by "Vermeersch, Scott M." <Vermeersch.Scott at mayo.edu>
5) Re: website training and review - what works?
by Daniel Messer <dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us>
6) RE: website training and review - what works?
by "Brian Cockburn" <cockbuba at jmu.edu>
7) Minor Correction
by Andrew Mutch <amutch at waterford.lib.mi.us>
8) RE: website training and review - what works?
by "Hartman, Robin" <rhartman at hiu.edu>
9) FW: website training and review - what works?
by "Gimon, Charles A" <cagimon at mplib.org>
10) Re: Free Britannica Going Away
by "Mike Madin" <madin at academicinfo.net>
11) Re: Free Britannica Going Away
by Daniel Messer <dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us>
12) Re: Free Britannica Going Away
by "Nancy Sosna Bohm" <plum at ulink.net>
13) Free Britannica end date
by Gail Skiff <gskiff at esls.lib.wi.us>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic No. 1
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 10:57:58 -0500
From: "Garwood, Steve" <sgarwood at camden.lib.nj.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Subject: Re: What's good design? :-)
Message-ID: <EB1D2C2BABCAD311B7190090277C0D4E48907E at APP_SERVER>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
I don't know if this would be of any help but...
This is from a class I use to teach called "Principles of Good Web-Design"
http://reference.camden.lib.nj.us/classes/garwood/design/
Please note: there are some design "mistakes" in there to highlight some
issues.
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Messer [mailto:dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 10:48 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: What's good design? :-)
Jennifer Geard <JLG at ltsa.govt.nz> said:
>
> Which leads to a question: what are good ways of organising big websites?
> Feel free to address issues of depth (my ideal is one click from the
> homepage to the most topical or heavily-used content, two clicks to most
> content and a maximum of three clicks to any point in the site), breadth
> (how many links can you put on a page before you're just befuddling your
> users) and ways of gathering topics to provide clear access. (Bonus marks
> may be awarded for discussion of selection criteria for terms used in
> headings. ;-)
>
> Cheers,
> Jennifer
>
Sounds like you've got the right ideas to me. The way I've done it before is
just to sit down with a pencil and paper (or Notepad or Gnotepad if you're
so
inclined) and just sort of sketch it out. I'll organize things into
catagories and list the links I want to make under those. If I feel I have
either too many links or too many catagories, I'll look for stuff I can
merge, refine, or cut completely. You'd be surprised sometimes at the stuff
you can just leave out, it becomes redundant when compared to other things
on
the site.
One final thing, your number of clicks sounds about right. I try not to
design anything more than two clicks "deep" but sometimes, well you just
gotta do it that way. :)
Regards,
Dan
--
The subject in question...
-------------
Daniel Messer
Technologies Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
509-452-8541 ext 712
102 N 3rd St Yakima, WA 98901
-----------
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
-Hunter S. Thompson
------------------------------
Topic No. 2
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 10:07:16 -0600
From: "Sloan, Bernie" <bernies at uillinois.edu>
To: "'web4lib at webjunction.org'" <web4lib at webjunction.org>,
Subject: First collaborative 24x7 live digital reference service?
Message-ID: <E5D27D04B963D211A82600A024DF2EC502BDAEE5 at oscar.pb.uiuc.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
I am trying to establish who was the first collaborative (i.e., more than
one library) live (i.e., interactive, synchronous, etc) digital reference
service to offer service on a 24x7 basis??
So far I have just one candidate: the Ready for Reference project in
Illinois. All the other projects I am aware of are either single
institutions, or collaborative projects that have hours less than 24x7.
Thanks in advance for any leads on other collaborative 24x7 services!
Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
338 Henry Administration Building
506 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: (217) 333-4895
Fax: (217) 265-0454
E-mail: bernies at uillinois.edu
------------------------------
Topic No. 3
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 16:08:15 -0000
From: Daniel Messer <dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us>
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: Free Britannica Going Away
Message-ID: <E14daIS-00046x-00 at mailhost.yaknet>
That doesn't surprise me at all. From what I've been reading recently,
Internet advertising, especially banner ads on websties are proving to be a
flop. Companies that advertise aren't getting a decent return for their money
from banner ads and thus pulling their money from the companies that design
and distribute banner ads. From what I gather you can expect a LOT of sites,
library related or not, to start going to members only. This may even include
the free internet providers who rely on banner ads.
Dan
Thomas Dowling <tdowling at ohiolink.edu> said:
> <URL:http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_NLTam_STO58603,00
> .html> reports that britannica.com is shutting down free, ad-supported
> access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. If I weren't busy with my NCAA
> brackets, I'd organize a betting pool on what other ad-supported,
> library-related sites would go next.
>
--
The subject in question...
-------------
Daniel Messer
Technologies Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
509-452-8541 ext 712
102 N 3rd St Yakima, WA 98901
-----------
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
-Hunter S. Thompson
------------------------------
Topic No. 4
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 10:10:16 -0600
From: "Vermeersch, Scott M." <Vermeersch.Scott at mayo.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Subject: Re: SOLVED Re: Internet Explorer Restrictions
Message-ID: <5435E4925AC1D211AA8100600808247804C158F6 at excsrv12.mayo.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Have you taken a look at the Public Web Browser from TeamSoftware?
(http://TeamSoftware.bizland.com) The browser is an Internet Explorer 5.5
front end and be configured anyway you want it. Plus the browser has quite a
bit of other features that make it well suited for public computer use.
Scott Vermeersch
Mayo Clinic Libraries
-----Original Message-----
From: stephanie spearman [mailto:razl00 at yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 9:17 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: SOLVED Re: Internet Explorer Restrictions
I do it a little differently. I don't use
"SpecifyButtonsDefault" although I might look into it.
When I first create the user I customize the toolbar
at that point. Then add these Registry restrictions:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions
values of "NoToolbarCustomize" set to 1 and
"NoToolbarOptions" also set to 1
________________
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Toolbars\Restrictions
value under this subkey of "NoToolbarOptions" set to
1.
I've used this with NT4 IE5+ since last summer and
changing the toolbar is one thing no user has been
able to do. As far as how this works with other
options I have enabled--maybe a combination is what
works (such as "NoBrowserOptions") in the end. Wish I
had time to play with it!
Stephanie Spearman
Electronic Services Librarian
NGRL
Dalton, GA
--- "Andrew I. Mutch" <amutch at waterford.lib.mi.us>
wrote:
> I had encountered the same problem that Bob had with
> the toolbar buttons.
> Now that I've figured out the fix in Win2K, I'm
> betting this works in
> other versions of Windows.
>
> OK, here's the fix that works:
>
> 1) First, ignore the settings listed in the JSI Tip
> and the MS KB articles
> and use this registry key for the tool bar buttons:
>
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER[OR
>
LOCAL_MACHINE]\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\
>
> 2) Next, add this REG_DWORD key and set its value to
> 1
>
> SpecifyButtonsDefault
>
> If you don't enable this setting, the button
> settings won't work.
>
> 3) Most important, add your button restrictions as
> REG_DWORD keys such as:
>
> Btn_Back [for the Back Button]
>
> and set its value to 2
>
> 2! Strange, yes? It is but that's what we
> discovered in Win2K using the
> Group Policies and comparing the restrictions
> against the Registry. I
> went back and discovered that the same information
> could be found in the
> files that are created by IEAK when you set Browser
> restrictions.
>
> I've tested this on a Win2K laptop with IE 5.5 SP1
> by directly editing the
> Registry, not using Group Policies. But, I'm going
> to bet that this will
> also work on WindowsNT and Windows98. Still to be
> tested is how other
> registry settings like "NoToolBarCustomize" and
> other settings affect
> these changes.
>
> If I get a chance, I'll try to make up a page that
> covers these settings
> and which registry keys and settings you should be
> using. I hope this is
> helpful. Happy hacking!
>
> Andrew Mutch
> Library Systems Technician
> Waterford Township Public Library
> Waterford, MI
>
>
> On Wed, 14 Mar 2001, Robert Sullivan wrote:
>
> > >http://www.jsiinc.com/TIP1900/rh1976.htm
> >
> > >It outlines a number of registry settings that
> you can set to lock down IE to
> > >prevent patrons from abusing the browser.
> However, I've found that many of
> > >these settings, like removing specific toolbar
> buttons, do not work in
> > >WindowsNT 4 and Windows9x.
> >
> > Technically, they work - but you have to use
> policies. (Now that we have our
> > Gates PCs, I have seen this for myself.) It
> sounds like Andrew is using Win
> > 2000 policies, so this would be consistent.
> >
> > I was never successful in making them work just by
> setting them in the
> > registry. I believe this is because IE configures
> its toolbar at runtime.
> >
> > For example, you could get the toolbar the way you
> like it and note the
> > registry settings for the two long binary keys
> which control this. During IE
> > installation you can set these values and IE will
> look the way you want - but
> > you'll see the default toolbar for a second until
> it loads yours.
> >
> > If you enable NoToolbarCustomize, you'll get the
> default buttons. This makes a
> > sort of sense if you know IE makes the change at
> runtime, and you're telling it
> > not to allow the account to change the toolbar.
> >
> > I would speculate that since the policy editor is
> making registry changes that
> > you could make yourself, there's a way to get this
> to work without policies;
> > perhaps there is another setting which conflicts
> with the button-removal
> > settings. Someone with time on their hands could
> probably enable registry
> > editing in one of the Gates public accounts and
> look at the settings. I'm
> > trying to get our lab ready for its National
> Library Week opening, so I will
> > leave that as an exercise for someone else. :-)
> >
> > Bob Sullivan
> scp_sulli at sals.edu
> > Schenectady County Public Library (NY)
> http://www.scpl.org
> >
>
>
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/
------------------------------
Topic No. 5
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 16:18:11 -0000
From: Daniel Messer <dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us>
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: website training and review - what works?
Message-ID: <E14daS3-000532-00 at mailhost.yaknet>
In addition to student and faculty focus groups, you might try sending a
little survey out to the students and faculty at large. Maybe drop some in
the professors' mailboxes and have them distribute to their classes.
Something like this was done several times while I was in college and it
seemed to work well. How you want them returned is up to you, but some profs
might object to collecting them and returning them. The reason for this being
that sometimes focus groups don't quite match the student and faculty
population at large and you might get a whole bunch of people in the group
that can't find X, but the real problem is that the rest of the students
can't find Y.
Another thing you might try, especially after you've discovered your specific
needs, is to distribute bookmarks or something like that with the library's
URL on it and maybe some FAQs. I understand what your admins are trying to
accomplish, after all trying to "sell" the college to people who already go
there is like preaching to the choir. Yet the library's site should pretty
much be geared directly for the current students as they are the folks that
will use it the most.
Good luck!
Dan
Carrie Phillips <phillipsc at bluffton.edu> said:
> Greetings, WEB4LIB,
>
> These questions are geared to those of you in academic library settings...
>
> Here's our situation:
>
> Our campus has recently overhauled its website design and architecture, and
> I've had to redesign the library portion of the campus site to match
> visually. We're now hearing two-fold rumors about campus that students are
> having trouble finding our library home page from the campus home page, and
> that once they do find us, they are having trouble knowing where to go to
> find what they need (research databases, etc.).
<SNIP!>
> The second part is easy to fix, since we have complete control of the
> library portion of the website architecture (once the patron finds us on the
> campus site), but we're not sure how to fix it. We'd like to form both
> student and faculty focus groups to sit down with us and tell us what they
> can find on our site and what they can't. Have any of you tried this? Is
> it a good way to work this kind of a problem out?
--
The subject in question...
-------------
Daniel Messer
Technologies Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
509-452-8541 ext 712
102 N 3rd St Yakima, WA 98901
-----------
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
-Hunter S. Thompson
------------------------------
Topic No. 6
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 12:03:42 -0500
From: "Brian Cockburn" <cockbuba at jmu.edu>
To: <phillipsc at bluffton.edu>,
Subject: RE: website training and review - what works?
Message-ID: <BPEKJPBKFDHBFMDECPFGKEEFCAAA.cockbuba at jmu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
May I suggest anything by Jakob Nielson and a book called Web Site
Usability: A designer's guide by Jared M. Spool and others.
The book is mostly e-commerce related but that is the environment that is
informing students expectations regarding functionality and usability
anyway.
BAC
Brian Cockburn
Digital Services Librarian
James Madison University
VMail: 540.568.6978 EMail: cockbuba at jmu.edu
Public Calendar: http://calendar.yahoo.com/cockbuba
-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On
Behalf Of Carrie Phillips
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 9:34 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] website training and review - what works?
Greetings, WEB4LIB,
These questions are geared to those of you in academic library settings...
Here's our situation:
Our campus has recently overhauled its website design and architecture, and
I've had to redesign the library portion of the campus site to match
visually. We're now hearing two-fold rumors about campus that students are
having trouble finding our library home page from the campus home page, and
that once they do find us, they are having trouble knowing where to go to
find what they need (research databases, etc.).
The first part is difficult to fix: the new site's architecture was set up,
in the mind of the design firm, to appeal to the prospective student, and
the "meat" of the library's section of the campus site *is* hard to find.
We're not able change the architecture, so we need to educate our users. If
any of you have been in this situation, what educational methods work?? How
do we get the word out?
The second part is easy to fix, since we have complete control of the
library portion of the website architecture (once the patron finds us on the
campus site), but we're not sure how to fix it. We'd like to form both
student and faculty focus groups to sit down with us and tell us what they
can find on our site and what they can't. Have any of you tried this? Is
it a good way to work this kind of a problem out?
We have a small campus of 1100 students and several faculty members who I
think would be interested in working with us on this. I'm hoping some of
you can tell me what your past experiences have been with this kind of
thing.
Thanks for your time. Please reply to phillipsc at bluffton.edu.
--
Carrie Phillips
Computer Technician/ILL Assistant/O-PCIRC
Musselman Library
Bluffton College - BLC
280 W. College Ave., Ste. 4
Bluffton, OH 45817
Ph. 419.358.3275
Fx. 419.358.3384
phillipsc at bluffton.edu
------------------------------
Topic No. 7
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 12:23:59 -0500
From: Andrew Mutch <amutch at waterford.lib.mi.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Subject: Minor Correction
Message-ID: <3AB0FAAF.BB412F02 at tln.lib.mi.us>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
I made a small mistake in the instructions I sent last night. In step 2, it should
say:
SpecifyDefaultButtons
That's what I get for working late.
:)
It is posted correctly at the help page:
http://tln.lib.mi.us/~amutch/pro/ie/restrictions.htm
If you follow that page, you'll be good to go.
Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI
"Andrew I. Mutch" wrote:
> I had encountered the same problem that Bob had with the toolbar buttons.
> Now that I've figured out the fix in Win2K, I'm betting this works in
> other versions of Windows.
>
> OK, here's the fix that works:
>
> 1) First, ignore the settings listed in the JSI Tip and the MS KB articles
> and use this registry key for the tool bar buttons:
>
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER[OR
> LOCAL_MACHINE]\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\
>
> 2) Next, add this REG_DWORD key and set its value to 1
>
> SpecifyButtonsDefault
>
> If you don't enable this setting, the button settings won't work.
>
> 3) Most important, add your button restrictions as REG_DWORD keys such as:
>
> Btn_Back [for the Back Button]
>
> and set its value to 2
>
> 2! Strange, yes? It is but that's what we discovered in Win2K using the
> Group Policies and comparing the restrictions against the Registry. I
> went back and discovered that the same information could be found in the
> files that are created by IEAK when you set Browser restrictions.
>
> I've tested this on a Win2K laptop with IE 5.5 SP1 by directly editing the
> Registry, not using Group Policies. But, I'm going to bet that this will
> also work on WindowsNT and Windows98. Still to be tested is how other
> registry settings like "NoToolBarCustomize" and other settings affect
> these changes.
>
> If I get a chance, I'll try to make up a page that covers these settings
> and which registry keys and settings you should be using. I hope this is
> helpful. Happy hacking!
>
> Andrew Mutch
> Library Systems Technician
> Waterford Township Public Library
> Waterford, MI
>
> On Wed, 14 Mar 2001, Robert Sullivan wrote:
>
> > >http://www.jsiinc.com/TIP1900/rh1976.htm
> >
> > >It outlines a number of registry settings that you can set to lock down IE to
> > >prevent patrons from abusing the browser. However, I've found that many of
> > >these settings, like removing specific toolbar buttons, do not work in
> > >WindowsNT 4 and Windows9x.
> >
> > Technically, they work - but you have to use policies. (Now that we have our
> > Gates PCs, I have seen this for myself.) It sounds like Andrew is using Win
> > 2000 policies, so this would be consistent.
> >
> > I was never successful in making them work just by setting them in the
> > registry. I believe this is because IE configures its toolbar at runtime.
> >
> > For example, you could get the toolbar the way you like it and note the
> > registry settings for the two long binary keys which control this. During IE
> > installation you can set these values and IE will look the way you want - but
> > you'll see the default toolbar for a second until it loads yours.
> >
> > If you enable NoToolbarCustomize, you'll get the default buttons. This makes a
> > sort of sense if you know IE makes the change at runtime, and you're telling it
> > not to allow the account to change the toolbar.
> >
> > I would speculate that since the policy editor is making registry changes that
> > you could make yourself, there's a way to get this to work without policies;
> > perhaps there is another setting which conflicts with the button-removal
> > settings. Someone with time on their hands could probably enable registry
> > editing in one of the Gates public accounts and look at the settings. I'm
> > trying to get our lab ready for its National Library Week opening, so I will
> > leave that as an exercise for someone else. :-)
> >
> > Bob Sullivan scp_sulli at sals.edu
> > Schenectady County Public Library (NY) http://www.scpl.org
> >
------------------------------
Topic No. 8
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 09:52:47 -0800
From: "Hartman, Robin" <rhartman at hiu.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Subject: RE: website training and review - what works?
Message-ID: <24DC2CD8367CD211B2B200A0C9E45B03015080CF at SOLOMON>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
We have the same problem with the library being hard to find from our
institution's home page for much the same reason. What we have done is to
publish the *library's* homepage every chance we get--on every handout and
bookmark, every datedue slip, every email, announcement, or blurb. I have
not done any testing to determine whether this approach has been successful
but I feel better about it.
With regard to the second problem, I am getting ready to do some usability
testing on a small part of our library site, but haven't even settled on the
approach I'm going to take yet. So I'm not much help there.
Robin
%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%
Robin R. Hartman -- Associate Librarian of Systems and Technical Services
Darling Library -- Hope International University
2500 E. Nutwood Ave. -- Fullerton, CA 92831
(714) 879-3901, x1212 -- FAX (714) 879-1041
rhartman at hiu.edu
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carrie Phillips [mailto:phillipsc at bluffton.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 6:34 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] website training and review - what works?
>
>
> Greetings, WEB4LIB,
>
> These questions are geared to those of you in academic
> library settings...
>
> Here's our situation:
>
> Our campus has recently overhauled its website design and
> architecture, and
> I've had to redesign the library portion of the campus site to match
> visually. We're now hearing two-fold rumors about campus
> that students are
> having trouble finding our library home page from the campus
> home page, and
> that once they do find us, they are having trouble knowing
> where to go to
> find what they need (research databases, etc.).
>
> The first part is difficult to fix: the new site's
> architecture was set up,
> in the mind of the design firm, to appeal to the prospective
> student, and
> the "meat" of the library's section of the campus site *is*
> hard to find.
> We're not able change the architecture, so we need to educate
> our users. If
> any of you have been in this situation, what educational
> methods work?? How
> do we get the word out?
>
> The second part is easy to fix, since we have complete control of the
> library portion of the website architecture (once the patron
> finds us on the
> campus site), but we're not sure how to fix it. We'd like to
> form both
> student and faculty focus groups to sit down with us and tell
> us what they
> can find on our site and what they can't. Have any of you
> tried this? Is
> it a good way to work this kind of a problem out?
>
> We have a small campus of 1100 students and several faculty
> members who I
> think would be interested in working with us on this. I'm
> hoping some of
> you can tell me what your past experiences have been with this kind of
> thing.
>
> Thanks for your time. Please reply to phillipsc at bluffton.edu.
>
> --
> Carrie Phillips
> Computer Technician/ILL Assistant/O-PCIRC
> Musselman Library
> Bluffton College - BLC
> 280 W. College Ave., Ste. 4
> Bluffton, OH 45817
> Ph. 419.358.3275
> Fx. 419.358.3384
> phillipsc at bluffton.edu
>
------------------------------
Topic No. 9
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 12:09:08 -0600
From: "Gimon, Charles A" <cagimon at mplib.org>
To: "'web4lib at webjunction.org'" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Subject: FW: website training and review - what works?
Message-ID: <DF1BECFDA8D9D311BB7E00105A08EE28AB232C at alpha>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
One possible thing to pursue: you could talk to your
tech people about the possibility of setting up a
separate virtual hostname that would point directly
to the start page for your Library, something like:
library.bluffton.edu
That way, you could market the short, memorable address
to students as a way of bypassing whatever complexities
there might be in the full site.
--Charles Gimon
Web Coordinator
Minneapolis Public Library
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carrie Phillips [mailto:phillipsc at bluffton.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 8:29 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] website training and review - what works?
>
>
> Greetings, WEB4LIB,
>
> These questions are geared to those of you in academic
> library settings...
>
> Here's our situation:
>
> Our campus has recently overhauled its website design and
> architecture, and
> I've had to redesign the library portion of the campus site to match
> visually. We're now hearing two-fold rumors about campus
> that students are
> having trouble finding our library home page from the campus
> home page, and
> that once they do find us, they are having trouble knowing
> where to go to
> find what they need (research databases, etc.).
>
> The first part is difficult to fix: the new site's
> architecture was set up,
> in the mind of the design firm, to appeal to the prospective
> student, and
> the "meat" of the library's section of the campus site *is*
> hard to find.
> We're not able change the architecture, so we need to educate
> our users. If
> any of you have been in this situation, what educational
> methods work?? How
> do we get the word out?
>
> The second part is easy to fix, since we have complete control of the
> library portion of the website architecture (once the patron
> finds us on the
> campus site), but we're not sure how to fix it. We'd like to
> form both
> student and faculty focus groups to sit down with us and tell
> us what they
> can find on our site and what they can't. Have any of you
> tried this? Is
> it a good way to work this kind of a problem out?
>
> We have a small campus of 1100 students and several faculty
> members who I
> think would be interested in working with us on this. I'm
> hoping some of
> you can tell me what your past experiences have been with this kind of
> thing.
>
> Thanks for your time. Please reply to phillipsc at bluffton.edu.
>
> --
> Carrie Phillips
> Computer Technician/ILL Assistant/O-PCIRC
> Musselman Library
> Bluffton College - BLC
> 280 W. College Ave., Ste. 4
> Bluffton, OH 45817
> Ph. 419.358.3275
> Fx. 419.358.3384
> phillipsc at bluffton.edu
>
------------------------------
Topic No. 10
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 09:47:18 -0800
From: "Mike Madin" <madin at academicinfo.net>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Subject: Re: Free Britannica Going Away
Message-ID: <005d01c0ad77$fa9ed2c0$0300000a at michael>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
A specific example is Academic Info. Ad revenue is down 90% since last fall
so we were forced to increase the number of ads per page earlier this month.
Initially (1998-1999), we relied solely on donations but with only around 1
in 300,000 visitors donating we were forced to introduce ads at the
beginning of 2000.
There seems to be an odd irony with online advertising: When you pay for a
print subscription advertising is assumed but with free online content ads
are anathema. For example, when you subscribe to the print version of
American Libraries (or any other magazine or newspaper) advertising isn't
giving a second thought but when you access the *free* online version ads
become offensive.
Even though I'm no fan of corporate America, I'd rather live with online
advertising than see the demise of all independent search engines,
directories and portals.
Just a few thoughts,
Mike Madin
Academic Info - http://www.academicinfo.net
Seattle
Send me an email if you'd like to be added to Academic Info's free monthly
announcement list.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Messer" <dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us>
> That doesn't surprise me at all. From what I've been reading recently,
> Internet advertising, especially banner ads on websties are proving to be
a
> flop. Companies that advertise aren't getting a decent return for their
money
> from banner ads and thus pulling their money from the companies that
design
> and distribute banner ads. From what I gather you can expect a LOT of
sites,
> library related or not, to start going to members only. This may even
include
> the free internet providers who rely on banner ads.
>
>
> Dan
------------------------------
Topic No. 11
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 18:18:18 -0000
From: Daniel Messer <dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us>
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: Free Britannica Going Away
Message-ID: <E14dcKI-0007dq-00 at mailhost.yaknet>
I fully agree with you. I really don't mind the ads all that much, but the
reason I don't mind them is I don't hardly even see them. I must look at
around 50 banner ads per day. However, I don't really *look* at them. I
notice their existence and proceed with whatever it was I was doing. Since I
don't remember what the ad was for, and I don't remember what product or what
brand the ad was pushing, the ad failed with me. The point is that I flip
past the online ad and give it just as little thought as I would an ad in a
magazine.
Advertisers were trying to use a method called "branding" with these ads. By
this you'll see a product and associate it with a brand name. For instance,
Band-aids, Frisbee, and Tums are all successful branding ventures. But with
so many ads on the net, and no one looking at them or paying attention in
anyway, the ads are failing, just as quickly as the companies. If it took me
clicking on an ad every now and then just to keep a good service free, I'd do
it too.
Dan
Mike Madin <madin at academicinfo.net> said:
> There seems to be an odd irony with online advertising: When you pay for a
> print subscription advertising is assumed but with free online content ads
> are anathema. For example, when you subscribe to the print version of
> American Libraries (or any other magazine or newspaper) advertising isn't
> giving a second thought but when you access the *free* online version ads
> become offensive.
>
> Even though I'm no fan of corporate America, I'd rather live with online
> advertising than see the demise of all independent search engines,
> directories and portals.
The subject in question...
-------------
Daniel Messer
Technologies Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
509-452-8541 ext 712
102 N 3rd St Yakima, WA 98901
-----------
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
-Hunter S. Thompson
------------------------------
Topic No. 12
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 10:21:46 -0800
From: "Nancy Sosna Bohm" <plum at ulink.net>
To: <tdowling at ohiolink.edu>,
Subject: Re: Free Britannica Going Away
Message-ID: <004f01c0ad7c$cb67c7a0$1001a8c0 at CWO.COM>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
It's still up as I type. I don't see an expected close date. Anyone have
that info?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Dowling" <tdowling at ohiolink.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 6:01 AM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Free Britannica Going Away
> <URL:http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_NLTam_STO58603,00
> .html> reports that britannica.com is shutting down free, ad-supported
> access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. If I weren't busy with my NCAA
> brackets, I'd organize a betting pool on what other ad-supported,
> library-related sites would go next.
>
> Thomas ("For Entertainment Purposes Only") Dowling
> OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
> tdowling at ohiolink.edu
>
------------------------------
Topic No. 13
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 12:42:28 -0800
From: Gail Skiff <gskiff at esls.lib.wi.us>
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Free Britannica end date
Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20010315124228.007df7e0 at esls.lib.wi.us>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I just talked to my service rep and he said the free version of Britannica
will be available throughout the summer, possibly will be pulled September
of this year.
Of course, this could change...
Gail Skiff - Info2go
Cedarburg Public Library
W63 N583 Hanover Avenue
Cedarburg WI 53012
phone: 262.375.7640 fax: 262.375.7618
email: gskiff at esls.lib.wi.us
keep passing the open windows...
------------------------------
End of WEB4LIB Digest 2167
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