Oh! I now see the link is on a new line. NCSU, the one I liked, is currently timing out for me!
What an interesting and practical task you have set your students.
I've just read on Twitter:
"Librarianry @LibrarianRy I hate to say it, but many, many library websites need to be redesigned as soon as possible. Like yesterday."
So your project is relevant.
There has been much recent discussion in various places about the design of university library websites. Some people say that most university library websites contain too much information (re: your links), and I would agree. But let us not throw out the baby with the bath water.
If the basic information is not swamped by the detail, and if there are enough human resources to keep the detail up-to-date, and these are two important 'ifs', then that detail can be useful.
For example, someone asks at the Reference Desk for information about this or that. Pointing them to the part of the library website where they will find the answer is better than not having any page to point them to and they subsequently have to write down various website URLs. Also, some detailed library web pages can be useful for alerting students to things that they may find useful, or for library user education purposes.
I'll check out http://www.uab.es/servlet/Satellite/libraries-1259912737636.html in more detail tomorrow. First impressions - nice, clean, clear, good graphics (featuring students). Good and unusual to see 'Objectives'. Not sure why 'The Quality' is an important link.
WRT "One of the first comments made at the beginning of the course was that none of the websites from the English speaking world had any languages other than English." - well, I think that that will be because anyone studying at a UK university is expected to be able to understand English to a certain extent. That's the way things work here.
A long time ago, I used to do a welcome library session for overseas students, and I tried to include welcomes in various languages. But for active searching/etc/lectures good English is expected.
Hi Roddy, Thank you so much for your comments. We have a week's holiday now for Easter and our last class was cancelled due to a general strike in Spain. We will be back in April and I'm looking forward to commenting on your points in class. It's a great pleasure to be in contact with an 'expert' who has taken the time to write to us and comment on the webpage. Best regards, Helen
Hi Roddy, Here's a reply from Montse about the Quality link on the UAB library webpage; Some reflections about the importance of the link ‘Quality’. The UAB Library Service was a pioneer in our country in obtaining an ISO 9001 certificate of quality in 1997. Since that time we have used this certification as a marketing strategy directed at our users and also our competitors. Today our leadership in this field is recognized and all the other institutions on campus have started working in the same way. I’m not sure if it’s still necessary to have this information on the web page but it is a way of explaining to our users what we are doing to increase user satisfaction and the annual progress of the quality indicators. We thought about asking for money from the training budget to invite you to talk to us or for us to take a trip to Edinburgh but in these economic times it's not even worth asking.....!!! regards, Helen
Helen, David and I have tried to download the article but it is not possible. It's probably not working properly... Can you send it by mail? Thank you!
Hi Helen,
ReplyDeleteI can't seem to post this to your previous post:
Hi Helen,
Oh! I now see the link is on a new line. NCSU, the one I liked, is currently timing out for me!
What an interesting and practical task you have set your students.
I've just read on Twitter:
"Librarianry @LibrarianRy
I hate to say it, but many, many library websites need to be redesigned as soon as possible. Like yesterday."
So your project is relevant.
There has been much recent discussion in various places about the design of university library websites. Some people say that most university library websites contain too much information (re: your links), and I would agree. But let us not throw out the baby with the bath water.
If the basic information is not swamped by the detail, and if there are enough human resources to keep the detail up-to-date, and these are two important 'ifs', then that detail can be useful.
For example, someone asks at the Reference Desk for information about this or that. Pointing them to the part of the library website where they will find the answer is better than not having any page to point them to and they subsequently have to write down various website URLs. Also, some detailed library web pages can be useful for alerting students to things that they may find useful, or for library user education purposes.
I'll check out http://www.uab.es/servlet/Satellite/libraries-1259912737636.html in more detail tomorrow. First impressions - nice, clean, clear, good graphics (featuring students). Good and unusual to see 'Objectives'. Not sure why 'The Quality' is an important link.
WRT "One of the first comments made at the beginning of the course was that none of the websites from the English speaking world had any languages other than English." - well, I think that that will be because anyone studying at a UK university is expected to be able to understand English to a certain extent. That's the way things work here.
A long time ago, I used to do a welcome library session for overseas students, and I tried to include welcomes in various languages. But for active searching/etc/lectures good English is expected.
Roddy
Hi Roddy, Thank you so much for your comments. We have a week's holiday now for Easter and our last class was cancelled due to a general strike in Spain. We will be back in April and I'm looking forward to commenting on your points in class. It's a great pleasure to be in contact with an 'expert' who has taken the time to write to us and comment on the webpage.
DeleteBest regards, Helen
Hi Roddy, Here's a reply from Montse about the Quality link on the UAB library webpage;
DeleteSome reflections about the importance of the link ‘Quality’.
The UAB Library Service was a pioneer in our country in obtaining an ISO 9001 certificate of quality in 1997. Since that time we have used this certification as a marketing strategy directed at our users and also our competitors. Today our leadership in this field is recognized and all the other institutions on campus have started working in the same way. I’m not sure if it’s still necessary to have this information on the web page but it is a way of explaining to our users what we are doing to increase user satisfaction and the annual progress of the quality indicators.
We thought about asking for money from the training budget to invite you to talk to us or for us to take a trip to Edinburgh but in these economic times it's not even worth asking.....!!!
regards,
Helen
Helen,
ReplyDeleteDavid and I have tried to download the article but it is not possible. It's probably not working properly...
Can you send it by mail?
Thank you!
Sorry Xavi, It's a pdf doc. I've just uploaded it to documents. It's called 'naminglib'pdf.
DeleteHave a good holiday. Helen