Help with Implications of Library's place in University DNS

Wed Sep 19 15:55:09 EDT 2012

If you are going to do a redirect, I'd recommend having it redirect
from both library.bethel.edu and www.bethel.edu/library. Users are
likely to type in either of these.

www.bethel.edu/offices/library is really bad. You are not a staff
office - you are probably one of the primary destinations on the
website.

Here at USF we use www.usfca.edu/library and it seems to work fine.
However, my regional campus library was
www.usfca.edu/remote_campus/santa_rosa/library for a long time, and
that essentially meant nobody ever found it via the url.

Jean Hewlett
Librarian, Santa Rosa Campus
University of San Francisco

On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Munson, Doris <dmunson at ewu.edu> wrote:
> We have the institutionname.edu/library because of the CMS our institution
> uses.  However, we also can use aliases and use the
> library.institutionname.edu if needed.  What we find is more important is
> that the institution has a link to the library on its home page – many of
> our students and faculty just type in institutionname.edu and then click on
> the library link rather than remembering the library’s URL.  The library
> link is one of the ten most used links on our institution’s home page.
>
>
>
> We also were able to get research.institutionname.edu for our LibGuides,
> which we promote as a quick way to access our databases and research guides.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Doris
>
>
>
> Doris Munson
>
> Systems/Reference Librarian
>
> Eastern Washington University
>
> dmunson at ewu.edu
>
> 509-359-6395
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Aaron Tay
>
>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 11:50 AM
> To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>
> Subject: Re: [WEB4LIB] Help with Implications of Library's place in
> University DNS
>
>
>
> Interesting that the consensus here is that
>
>
>
> library.institutionname.edu is easier to remember or use for people than
> insitutionname.edu/library ?
>
>
>
> We gotten feedback from users arguing the reverse. Think they said everyone
> knows how to get to the institutional homepage and then it's common sense
> just to add /library .
>
>
>
> Anyway we are a lib.institutionname type of library.
>
>
>
> With best regards,
>
>
>
> Tay Chee Hsien, Aaron (Mr) :: Senior Librarian, NUS Libraries :: National
> University of Singapore :: Central Library (Information Services), 12 Kent
> Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119275 :: 65-6516 2030(DID) ::  (Fax) :: 65-6774
> 7180 :: aarontay at nus.edu.sg<mailto:aarontay at nus.edu.sg> (E) ::
> www.nus.edu.sg<http://www.nus.edu.sg> (W) :: Company Registration No:
> 200604346E
>
>
>
>
> On 20 Sep, 2012, at 12:20 AM, Nina Mchale <milehighbrarian at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
>
> 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] 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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>
>
> --
>
> ****************************
>
>
>
> Isidro F. Aguillo, HonDr.
>
> The Cybermetrics Lab, CSIC
>
> Madrid. SPAIN
>
>
>
> isidro.aguillo at cchs.csic.es
>
>
>
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