[Web4lib] Labeling on Websites (electronic resources)

Fri Jun 5 11:33:02 EDT 2009

It's often been mentioned here, but maybe not for a while.  John Kupersmith's Library Terms
That Users Understand - http://www.jkup.net/terms.html -  is a terrific resource for this type of discussion, though unfortunately but inevitably it's better at identifying terms they don't understand than at suggesting terms they do.

One of its best uses is to provide some hard evidence for the colleagues who have always called them databases and don't really think there's any problem.

      - Jim Campbell

      Digital Access Librarian | Librarian for German
      University of Virginia Library | Charlottesville, VA 22904-4112

      513 Alderman | campbell at virginia.edu | 434-924-4985

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Sharon Foster
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 11:16 AM
To: Louise Alcorn
Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org; Cecily Walker
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Labeling on Websites (electronic resources)

We struggled with this, too. We settled on "Research Your Topic," plus
bumped it up to the second spot.

http://www.cheshirelibrary.org

Previously it was "Articles and Databases." I think the word
"research" has to be a little more familiar to the average public
library user than the word "databases." It might make an  interesting
little survey to find out.

http://web.archive.org/web/20071009045856/http://www.cheshirelibrary.org/

I have no data to prove it, but my feeling is that moving it up
increased its visibility and use more than changing the name. Likewise
for changing "Books and Reading" to "Find a Good Book," and moving it
to the first place.

Sharon M. Foster, JD, MLS
Speaker-to-Computers
http://www.vsa-software.com/mlsportfolio/

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 10:49 AM, Louise Alcorn<Louise.Alcorn at wdm-ia.com> wrote:
> Hi Cecily.
> We've really struggled with this ourselves [ http://www.wdmlibrary.org/
> ] We use "References/Tools" which I kinda hate to describe our lists of
> subject-grouped reference links.  We also avoided the word "research",
> but I'm not sure we've hit on anything that works. We have mouse-over
> menus on our website, and all the meaty stuff is under "Library
> Resources" which annoys me.  Unfortunately, since we were using a web
> design company (I hope to take this back over in a couple of years),
> much of the menu-ing had to be decided all at once, and cannot be
> changed at present.
>
> We did a lot of "Quick Links" to obvious stuff (catalog, calendar, etc.)
> to improve navigation.  It helped a bit.  We also struggled with how to
> group our downloadable audiobooks and video collections from outside
> vendors, and put them under "Downloadable Media"...which almost works.
> I think we were more successful with our "Using the Library" and "About
> the Library" sets of linkages, as these were more straightforward.
>
> If someone has a really useful, effective term(s) for all those
> wonderful pathfinders and links we all create, I'd love to hear it!
>
> Louise E. Alcorn
> Reference Technology Librarian
> West Des Moines Public Library
> 4000 Mills Civic Pkwy
> West Des Moines IA 50265
> (515) 222-3573      louise.alcorn at wdm-ia.com
> http://www.wdmlibrary.org
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Cecily Walker
> Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 4:02 PM
> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: [Web4lib] Labeling on Websites (electronic resources)
>
> Hi All,
>
> We've been having a bit of discussion on a a couple of the web teams I'm
> on regarding labeling and terminology on library websites.
> Previously, I spent all my work time in private enterprises, so coming
> back to the library space has certainly been a learning experience.
>
> What we're dealing with now is how to label electronic resources and
> research guides. We want the label to be as succinct as possible, and
> ideally, it would give off enough of an information scent so that the
> public would be able to tell what sorts of things they might find after
> clicking that link.
>
> At present, our website navigation includes "Research Guides &
> Suggestions By Topic", as well as "Newspapers, Articles, Encyclopedias &
> More". There are obvious problems with any label that includes the word
> "more" because it's a very vague term. Because we're a public library,
> the word 'research' doesn't test all that well with our population
> because they don't always consider what they're doing to be research. We
> switched from "Electronic Resources" to the new terms because we found
> our patrons just didn't really understand what electronic resources
> were.
>
> So I'm curious - how do you label these items on your website? I know
> that this is one of those things for which there is no perfect answer,
> but curiosity has gotten the better of me.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Cecily  Walker, MLIS
> Web Services Librarian
> Vancouver Public Library
> cecily.walker at gmail.com (personal)
> cecily.walker at vpl.ca (work)
>
>
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