[Web4lib] Link to Library site on College website

[Walker, David]

I absolutely think that the library should be linked off of the university home page.  

But this is a bit of a double-edged sword, too.  I've seen marketing people go over to the other extreme, wanting to dictate how the library website should look from their marketing perspective.

It was hard for them to understand that the library website was a tool used for research, and not just brochure-ware for the library.

--Dave

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David Walker
Library Web Services Manager
California State University
http://xerxes.calstate.edu
________________________________________
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of nancy at thesmudge.com [nancy at thesmudge.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 8:03 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] Link to Library site on College website

The academic institution where I work is redesigning its website.
Once again I am making the case for a link to the library site on the
College home page.
In part I stated:
"A link to the library website on the home page will greatly increase
students' use of scholarly materials in their research. Without a link to
the library website, many students will rely on materials that are free on
the Internet, and frequently they will be blocked from accessing scholarly
materials to which we subscibe."
I was nicely told that the College website was not for the faculty and
students. It was recruitment tool (and the library is evidently not part
of that agenda).
And yet the company designing the College website states in its Best Web
Practices document being circulated throughout the College:
"......we often describe two modes of communication in Web content:
emotional and transactional. The former is often associated with
'marketing,' and by extension traditional 'external' audiences; the latter
with current students, faculty, etc. It is our belief that too many higher
ed Web sites keep these two types of content separate; sites contain a
'marketing' area (usually the Admission section) and an 'informational'
area (often the rest of the site). We prefer an approach that integrates
the two...."

I've pretty much given up on this, but wondered if those on this list
might have some bits of wisdom on the topic.

Nancy Sosna Bohm




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