[WEB4LIB] Library web site relationship with parent institution site

[John Eye]

Michelle,

We went through the same discussions last year.  I argued that although
there are advantages to maintaining consistency across a website, there
are advantages to having a unique look for separate entities
(departments, colleges, libraries, etc.).  That fell on deaf ears and we
were forced to utilize a university banner and footer on each page.  I
also argued that visited links needed to be visible to the user (it was
not a part of the university design) but I see that is not the case at
your university.

I wish I could give you something more to go on.



Dr. John Eye
Asst. Professor of Instructional Media
Sherratt Library
Southern Utah University
Cedar City, Utah 84720
435 865 8392 office
eye at suu.edu

>>> "Michelle Conkas" <MConkas at usc.edu.au> 10/6/2004 8:22:03 PM >>>
Hi everyone,
 
We are in the process of moving our Library web site into our parent
institutions content management system. We are the last area of the
university to do so, and have struck some problems in control over the
web site layout and design.
 
The university's site is here: http://www.usc.edu.au/. All sub-sites
are currently lists of links made up of lower level directory
structures, eg.: http://www.usc.edu.au/Students/Current/ 
 
We are writing a proposal to allow us to vary our home page from other
sub-sites, as we believe that the Library's web site is quite
different
in purpose to most of the other web pages of the university, and that
we
are a destination in and of ourselves, and have much more complex
transactions on our site than other sub-sites.
 
Our marketing department, who control the whole site, are concerned
that if we are allowed to vary our templates, then everyone else will
want to follow suit. We agree that we should fit into the university's
look and feel, with basic colours and identifying banners (although I
think the 2 banners are far too large and confusing for clients who
enter into the library's site and expect to be in an independent
site).
 
It has also been suggested that much of our content on our site is for
internal staff and students, and so perhaps should be on a Intranet or
portal, rather than a public site. We are strongly fighting against
this
suggestion. We feel our site should be an information tool for more
than
just our internal clients, and is not just a marketing tool for
visitors.
 
Any tips on how to approach our need for independence and uniqueness?
Any studies or papers that have been published on this topic?
 
Thanks,
 
Michelle
 
----------------------------------------------------------
Michelle Conkas
Systems & Digital Resources Coordinator
University of the Sunshine Coast Library
Ph: (07) 5430 2801
Fax: (07) 5430 2811
E-mail: mconkas at usc.edu.au 
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