The Yale University library is made up of twenty different buildings on campus. These building are designated for specific schools and subjects. Such as the Cushing/Whitney medical library and the Lillian Goldman law library. Each school provides subject specific services to their students and differs from other libraries on campus in policy and layout. Despite the differences between libraries they all share the same library homepage. The Yale University Library site brings all the libraries and buildings together for the ease of the user. Bringing so many libraries together is no easy task, especially when a large portion of your user base is incoming undergraduates. The following is short assessment of the library website conducted by a non-student/ faculty/ staff member.
General Assessment
The home page for the Yale libraries provides a lot of information. However, despite the quantity of links provided, the page does not looked cluttered or chaotic. Links to services provided by the library system are located at the top of the page via drop down menu and in the center of the page in a site map configuration. Contact information is not available on the homepage and does not have an obvious location within the site.
Organization of the homepage and corresponding pages is clear and user friendly. Headings are worded in a laymen friendly manner, with a few exceptions, and are clear in meaning and purpose. The libguides are presented in alphabetical order of general subjects. Once a libguide is clicked it may have resources to more specific topics.
Navigation around the site is generally easy. The Yale logo at the top of the page leads users back to the main homepage whenever clicked. A few exceptions to the ease on navigat...
... middle of paper ...
...at the “Orbits Catalog” is was left out of the basic guides.
The site is designed with the presumption that incoming undergraduate students will be library literate. Without proper instruction in library use incoming students may have troubles in their initial usage of the library.
However, once a student is educated in the library’s basic functions the resources and links provided on the site will no doubt be beneficial to the education of the student. To all appearances the goal of the site is to further the educational aims of the student and the university. In this aspect the Yale library webpage does an outstanding job.
Works Cited
Raward, R. (2001). Academic library website design principles: Development of a checklist. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 32(2).
Yale. (n.d.). Yale University Library. Retrieved from http://web.library.yale.edu/
From my perspective as a library graduate student, however, my attention was drawn to the section titled "Library School is Revolting." This collection of essays explores questions such as "Are we really learning the practical skills necessary to be librarians, such as public relations and professional writing?" and "Is accreditation really a big deal?" While I felt fortunate that some of the not-so-subtle digs at library schools didn't really apply too heavily to SIRLS, some of it is familiar enough to make you laugh (or cry).
...rary as posed by the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. While it does not offer any services of a traditional library such as reference help, etc., the searchable full-text documents provide quick, easy access to information that once had to be tediously skimmed by hand. Anyone needing reference information or access to classic literature would be remiss not to employ Bartleby.com’s resources.
One of the things that I have learned is how to use different resources at college. One of the resources is the library. Since the library is closed right now I learned how to use the online library. I did not know how to use the library website at first, and know I know how to use it better. I use the website for almost all my classes. I use it for finding articles, and doing research. I think this resource will be the most helpful to me, because I can use the online resources to find articles, books, movies, and music. If I need to do research on a topic, I can always request a book and check it out from the library. The COL 101 class has also helped me with my future.
This library system is utilizing all the technologies and materials available to them to serve the community in the best way. Despite certain social indicators and demographic statistics indicating that the library should not be overly utilized, it is thriving and is heavily in use. There are areas that the library can look to improve based on statistical evidence, such as reaching out to the low income population and the over 55 years age group. This library seems to be meeting numerous needs for a wide range of patrons, and doing it well.
The design of the website is appealing, although it may seem a bit over-whelming at first glance. Upon review, the design provides little written information regarding the actual purpose of the publication, but does include many easy to navigate hyper-links on various topics that may be very appealing to a person needing specific information on one topic.
Darnton, Robert. "The Library in the New Age." NYBooks.com. The New York Review of Books, June 12, 2008. Web. 6 March 2012.
The internet is a great resource but this paper takes a critical look at the DHMO.org website, in particular, and looks at categories during this assessment that addresses specific critical tools in evaluating this web page specifically. Using primarily the web page evaluation checklist published by UC Berkeley1 and concurrently S.P.I.D.E.R.2 which is the acronym for Source, Purpose, Information, Domain, Educational, and Reliability. It takes you through how the web page evaluation checklist helped in discerning the authenticity of the web page.
Though many of the people around us enjoy the luxury of having access to libraries and books everyday, that is not the case for the vast majority of people around the world.
Enrolled as an out-of-state student living in a different state, makes it nearly impossible to continue and use the services the library offers only on campus. This does not stop me from using the library as a resource. There are many services that the libaray offers to students online as well. The libaray database can be accessed at any location just by typing your name and nine hundred number. Most of my health care management classes require to look up articles. The library database is the primary resource that I use. I am able to find articles from journals, books, newspapers, magazines and
Virtual Reference Library (VRL) belongs to the Canada’s largest library, The Toronto Public Library and funded by both the library and the Province of Ontario to explore Ontario’s present, past and future.
The current environment consists of basically nothing right now because there is not library on the Exton campus. The only way for students to use a campus library as of now is to go the main campus of Delaware County Community College in Newtown Square. This is rather inconvenient for most people because many reasons. For example the student may have a family to take care of and therefore not have the extra time to be travelling so far to use a library. Also some students may not have the use of a car in order to travel that far to use a campus library. The only way for an Exton campus student to use the main campus library is to request that certain books be sent to the Exton campus where they can pick them up and use them. This can be a rather lengthy process and most students do not even know this service is available. The only other choice students have right now is to make the drive to main campus. Because...
After visiting and examining the PBS Web site, I was able to conclude that it is an extremely successful entertainment and educational site. The Web site has won many substantial awards, including the prestigious "Webbie Award" in 1998 and 1999. According to a recent survey, fifty-six percent of users at the PBS Web site are male and sixty percent are between the ages of eighteen and forty-four. Forty-four percent of the Web site users have children and fifty-seven percent make online purchases. (Gallup/Plaw Release: Survey of 40,000 Internet Users. Fall 1998.)
Now that we are living in an ever changing world, technology is viewed as the most resourceful tool in keeping up with the pace. Without the use of technology, communication would be limited to using mail for delivery and encyclopedias for research. Although technology has improved the way we communicate and find information for research, the information is not always valid. Unfortunately, for those of us who use the internet for shopping, research, or reading articles of personal interest the information is not treated the same as a your magazine or book. While such literature is reviewed by an editorial staff, internet literature or information can be published by anyone. In order to reap the full benefit of having the use of technology for any purpose, there are five basic criteria’s one must keep in mind as an evaluating tool for deciding whether or not the particular website is a reliable source for information.
... to the Library and that have generally been underused resources. B. Greater use of the Library's Capitol Hill facilities by scholars for the kind of interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, multimedia, multilingual, and synthetic writing that is important to Congressional deliberation and national policy-making, but inadequately encouraged both by special interest groups and by advocacy-oriented think tanks; and C. Greater use by the general public through programs that stimulate interest, increase knowledge, and encourage more citizens to use the collections on-site and electronically.”The Library employees will add their position as information guides by “helping more people find appropriate materials in a swelling sea of unsorted information” and directing them to services and resources exclusive to the Library of Congress. This requires not only more growth of employees that the Library has formerly had, but also making it easier in new ways more wide-ranging and “systematic use by researchers of the distinctive materials that only the Library of Congress has.” Courses for the common public, such as displays or publications, must display the importance and value of the collections.
Zickuher, Kathryn, Rainie, Lee, Purcell, Kristen, Library services in the digital age, Pew Internet & American Life Project, January 22, 2013, http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/01/22/library-services, December 10, 2013.