Academic Library Web Sites: Current Practice and Future Directions

“Watch Your Language!”: Word Choice in Library Website Usability

“…The first theme, user behaviour, is concerned with how users tend to engage with academic library websites and what researchers have learned from observing these behaviours. Detlor & Lewis (2006) posited that library websites often do not sufficiently meet the information-seeking requirements of many users because of the language barriers they pose (p. 255). The number of choices presented on the home page may also impact its use since users strive to locate the "best option" and may spend less time considering other options on the page (Kasperek et al, 2011, p. 222).…”

A Design Analysis of Indiana Public Library Homepages

“…Among these are Nielsen's (2002) guidelines for homepage usability, W3C's (Caldwell, Cooper, Reid, and Vanderheiden 2008) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Leggett's (2009) The extent to which each website within a population of libraries is reviewed often depends on the research question in mind. Studies that aim to present the current state of library web design within a particular group tend to make comprehensive examinations, meaning that the entire website is reviewed for content features, either specific or general (Tolpannen, Miller, and Wooden 2000;Detlor and Lewis 2006;Qutab and Mahmood 2009). However, there are potentially many different purposes a library website may serve, such as marketing library events, providing stakeholders with publicly-accessible statistics on library usage, or connecting users with online library resources.…”

“…This applies to websites for all types of libraries, including academic, special, and public. Academic library websites have been frequently studied, both in terms of redesign case studies (Becker and Yannotta 2013;Tidal 2012) and aggregate analyses of a variety of library populations (Aharoney 2012; Detlor and Lewis 2006). Several studies have also assessed the accessibility, usability, and design elements of special library websites (Schmetzke and Comeaux 2009;Manzari and Trinidad-Christensen 2006;Dowell 2008;Michalec 2006).…”

Library Homepage Design at Medium-Sized Institutions

“…The third category is broader, examining "a population of libraries for a variety of content and design issues largely specific to academic libraries" (Jones and Leonard 2011, 26). This category includes Brian Detlor and Vivian Lewis' (2006) analysis of ARL library Web site design. The fourth category Library Home Page Design 6 "focuses on studying a population of libraries for a large number of design and content elements" (Jones and Leonard 2011, p. 26).…”