Help with Implications of Library's place in University DNS

Wed Sep 19 12:19:43 EDT 2012

Hey, all,

SEO and technical issues aside, consider human factors as well. Imagine
yourself giving someone the URL over the phone. Is it easier to say "That's
lib, L-I-B, dot..." OR just "That's library dot..." ...followed by the
domain name and suffix, which, at least in an academic setting, is probably
similar to the parent institution. It also looks better to use full words,
rather than a jumble of acronyms, on printed or other collateral for
branding/marketing. And having the URL library.institutionname.edu is
quicker/shorter than www.insitutionname.edu/library or even
insitutionname.edu/library. Easier to say, easier to read, easier for users
to remember. It's also important, IMO, to provide a more distinct identity
for the library on campus. That's not too much to ask.

That said, there are always campus IT departments that aren't willing to
play nice with domain names and/or local conventions that might not make
this possible. (Example: last place I worked was an academic library that
supported three colleges, so we couldn't brand as one or the other of the
colleges, so we went the the campus name as the domain name, with "library"
as the subdomain.)

"Lib" is a silly pet peeve of mine. And anyway, do you say, "lib" or
"libe"? Again, imagine giving the URL out to a student over the phone. ;)

-- 
Nina

Nina McHale, MA/MSLS
milehighbrarian.net
Facebook & Twitter: @ninermac

On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 9:36 AM, Ross Singer <rossfsinger at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 11:22 AM, Isidro F. Aguillo wrote:
>
>  Talking about friendly URLs, why are many libraries using "lib" instead
> of "library" in the URL?. There is no real advantage on this that fact
> penalizes in search engines rank as end-users are asking for "library", not
> lib. The same applies to biol instead of biology, med instead of medicine
> and more relevant to this forum, eprints/dspace instead of repository.
>
> While I would say that the reason is most likely historical (since I know,
> for example, that www.lib.utk.edu predates any 'search engine' and,
> generally, the domain .lib.utk.edu predates, well, Gopher -- speaking
> first hand on this, I guess dates me a bit).
>
> But setting aside the reason for .lib, do you have any evidence that this
> hurts SEO?  I would be shocked if search engines' dictionaries didn't map
> lib to library, especially since the terms are so prevalent in computing
> (among the zillions of other applications of lib/library).
>
> I would think just from critical mass alone, the search engines would
> infer a synonymous relationship between lib and library that would cancel
> any loss of SEO.
>
> But, if you have evidence to the contrary, I think it would be useful to
> these libraries!
>
> -Ross.
>
>
> A few examples:
>
> The University of Chicago Library    lib.uchicago.edu/
> UMD Library University of Minnesota Duluth    www.d.umn.edu/lib/
> The Library-University of California, Berkeley    www.lib.berkeley.edu/
> e-Library at Iowa State University    www.lib.iastate.edu/
> Monash University Library    www.lib.monash.edu/
> Michigan State University Libraries    www.lib.msu.edu/
> NCSU Libraries    www.lib.ncsu.edu/
> UC Davis - University Library    www.lib.ucdavis.edu/
> The University of Iowa Libraries    www.lib.uiowa.edu/
> University of Maryland Libraries    www.lib.umd.edu/
> MLibrary Homepage | MLibrary    www.lib.umich.edu/
> University of Texas Libraries    www.lib.utexas.edu/
> University Libraries - University of Tennessee, Knoxville
> www.lib.utk.edu/
> University Libraries | Virginia Tech    www.lib.vt.edu/
> University of Washington Libraries    www.lib.washington.edu/
>
> Best,
>
>
> El 19/09/2012 17:08, Hess, M. Ryan escribió:
>
>  One thing that come to my mind is that the new URL is not as friendly. I
> would really push to keep your existing one using the DNS aliasing. If only
> to make it simple for staff to say the URL to people over the phone or in
> the classroom aloud. Nobody is going to be able to remember the new path.
>
>  M Ryan Hess
> Web Services Coordinator
> DePaul University
> JTR 120, DePaul University, Lincoln Park Campus, 2350 N Kenmore Ave.,
> Chicago IL 60614
> office: 773-325-7829 | cell:  650-224-7279 |  fax: 773-325-2297  |
> mhess8 at depaul.edu <https://outlook.depaul.edu/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx>
>
>   From: <Dobbs>, Aaron <AWDobbs at SHIP.EDU>
> Reply-To: Web technologies in libraries <WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU>
> Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 5:02 PM
> To: "WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU" <WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [WEB4LIB] Help with Implications of Library's place in
> University DNS
>
>   Hiya,****
>
> ** **
>
> There is no real need for the URL to change, even if the *actual* network
> path does change.****
>
> “library.bethel.edu” is a much better web address than requiring an
> extensive network path to get to the same content (no matter where it
> lives) – and library.bethel.edu will also positively impact any SEO for
> searches such as: Bethel Library.****
>
> ** **
>
> At MPOW we had library.ship.edu aliased to go to our CMS pages at:
> ship.edu/library – when we started our LibGuides service, we were able to
> have library.ship.edu redirected to point to our LibGuides instance,
> instead. ****
>
> The DNS aliasing has worked well for us. ****
>
> ** **
>
> -Aaron****
>
> :-)’****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU<WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU>]
> *On Behalf Of *Kent Gerber
> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 18, 2012 5:30 PM
> *To:* WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> *Subject:* [WEB4LIB] Help with Implications of Library's place in
> University DNS****
>
> ** **
>
> Dear Web Librarians,
>
> Our Library is in the midst of a University-wide web redesign and during a
> meeting we heard that the Web Services group might be considering moving
> the library from it's library.bethel.edu domain to something more like
> www.bethel.edu/offices/library. Is this a cause for concern?
>
> My suspicion is that we might lose some functionality with this change but
> I wanted to consult your expertise before I get too riled up.
>
> Do any of you have experience with this kind of DNS shift and is there a
> significant technological or functional change that I should be aware of
> with this issue?  Our library does not have an internal Web Services group
> and we depend on the University's Web Services group for these kinds of
> issues.
>
> Any advice or experience is appreciated.
>
> Kent
>
> --
> Kent Gerber, MSLIS
> Digital Library Manager
> Bethel University
> 3900 Bethel Drive
> Saint Paul, MN 55112
> email: kent-gerber at bethel.edu
> phone: 651-638-6937
>
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> 2012-09-18 ****
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> 2012-09-19
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>
>
> --
> ****************************
>
> Isidro F. Aguillo, HonDr.
> The Cybermetrics Lab, CSIC
> Madrid. SPAIN
> isidro.aguillo at cchs.csic.es
>
> ****************************
>
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> 2012-09-19
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2012-09-19
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