NLA/MPLA Conference 2003 · Lake Tahoe
Presentation · 7 November 2003 · 12:30 to 2 p.m.

Attracting, Educating, and Serving Remote Users

Building a Virtual Library

Araby Greene

Content is King

Quality content sets a "Virtual Library" apart from a traditional web site. To keep up with user expectations as the population of Internet users grows, libraries are offering more full-text resources, community information services, and media-rich archives.

Mooer's Law

A worthy goal is to make all this wonderful content easy to find and use, because...

The gateway to content, usually the library web site, should be:

• Easy to find
  • Every page should have a title. META tags (description, keywords) help some search engines find you.
  • The library's URL should be on everything you give out or email, such as keychain library cards!
  • Marketing helps! See Marketing the Library: Training Modules for Public Library Staff
• Easy to use
  • Good site structure reflects the way people use your web not organizational structure
  • Describe menu options in Library Terms that Users Understand
• Accessible to all
  • Accessibility follows from adherence to current Web standards that separate content from presentation
  • Use style sheets and valid code, and check with free validators on the Web
• Attractive
  • The site's design should fit its purpose and audience
  • A standards-compliant site can be attractive as well as usable

Designing the Virtual Library

Good design is "invisible"

Like a movie sound track, design complements purpose without calling attention to itself. Visitors should not need to "figure out" how to use a library web site in order to find information.

• Dare to be simple
  • Every text or graphic element on a web page should have a purpose
  • Use only a few well-chosen fonts and a simple color scheme
  • Reduce the "noise level" by eliminating all unnecessary words and "happy talk"
• Dare to use design clichés
  • Put navigation elements where people expect to find them
  • Use standard page headers and footers so people know where they are, how to get back to the main sections of the web site, and who to contact if they have problems.
  • Most commercial sites offer Help and/or Technical Support links. Libraries should too.
• Dare to use common sense
  • Make important things more prominent than other things
  • Create self-explanatory pages. Nobody reads instructions!
  • Offer menu options for special user groups, such as teens, friends
• Dare to insist on standards
  • CSS and XHTML will make pages easier to maintain and usually much shorter.
    For example: This chart saved as HTML from Word is 71K, but cleaned up, is 7K!
  • Standards will keep the content of your pages accessible by any Internet device or browser
  • There is a learning curve, but it's worth the effort
• Top 5 resource picks and more...
  • Designing with Web Standards
    Jeffrey Zeldman. Companion site to book of the same title. If you read only one technical book this year, make it this one. Amazon has 41 free sample pages
  • A List Apart
    Jeffrey Zeldman's articles for "people who make websites"
  • Eric Meyer on CSS
    Companion site to Meyer's important book. Practical advice and well-documented examples.
  • W3 Schools
    An excellent collection of tutorials, plus coding and scripting reference pages
  • W3C CSS Validator and W3C Markup Validation Service
    The first service ensures valid CSS code, and the second, valid HTML or XHTML

Offer as many online services as you can support

• Digital and Virtual reference services
  • E-mail reference can be a simple link or a form
    Many examples from Google
  • Chat is easy to set up, but requires a serious commitment in staff time.
    At the University of Nevada, Reno, we use HumanClick chat software and provide information services for library users and for visitors to the main University web site. This expansion of information service to the wider University community has been good for the librarians who participate and good for the University.
• Online library card registration
  Ashtabula County District Library, Ohio.
• Online library newsletter distributed via E-mail
  InfoEdge, University of Nevada, Reno Libraries. Interested users subscribe to a Majordomo list. Content is archived in a blog.
• Portal services
  • Portal Webliography
    Eric Lease Morgan, developer of MyLibrary portal application.
  • Brarydog
    A public library portal. Homework help and web companion. Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
  • Reference Tools
    Create a Custom Reference Tools Page. Hennepin County Library, Minnesota.
• Comment forms, surveys, and polls invite user feedback
  • Comment Form. University of Nevada, Reno, Libraries
  • Surveys
    • Zoomerang free Web surveys
    • FSO: FreeSurveysOnline.com
    • Google > Computers > Software > Marketing > Surveys
  • Polls, such as this simple poll for Active Server Pages.
• Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries
  Links to notable services at both public and academic libraries.

Make your web searchable

• Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster
  Why web searchers hunt like animals, by Jakob Nielsen.
• Create a free customized Google search
  If you cannot provide your own search engine, a Google search form can limit searches to your domain (requires registration). The search below was created in less than a minute:

  WWW UNR Libraries DeLaMare Library

Add new (to you) media

• RSS Newsfeeds
  • RSS Tutorial
  • RSS Workshop
    Utah.gov site, whose motto is: "If you build it and have great content, they will come"
• Blogs
  • LibDex List of Library Weblogs
  • Peter Scott's Library Blog
• Digital Collections
  • The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing
    William E. Kasdorf, editor. Comprehensive reference guide.
  • Milne Library [SUNY Oneonta] - Electronic Texts
    Grab some links to major digital collections if you can't provide your own.
• Free Electronic Resources
  • Online Information Sources for UNR Alumni and Library Friends
    Free databases and free online journals.
  • Electronic Journal Miner
    Searchable directory, with limit options for "Free Publications" and "Peer Reviewed Publications." Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL).
  • Sources for Free Electronic Books
    Short list from University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
  • Librarians Index to the Internet
    Timely topical guides that you can link to with confidence, or a "starter set" of resources for a hot topic.

Improve usability

• Usability 101
  "Iterative design is the best way to increase the quality of user experience. The more versions and interface ideas you test with users, the better." —Jakob Nielsen.
• Bobby
  Test web pages for barriers to accessibility. Bobby will report potential problems as well as real ones.
• Section 508
  Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act: Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards.

Additional Developer Resources