5 Outstanding Academic Libraries

The first priority for finding the outstanding libraries was to determine the criteria with which to judge the websites. I chose the following criteria: purpose, appropriateness, currency, responsibility, clarity, accessibility, and creativity. (Lesley) Once the criteria were established, the search for outstanding websites began. The results are as follows.

Seattle Central Community College - the Library @ Seattle Central
http://dept.sccd.ctc.edu/cclib

The reasons for selecting the Library @ Seattle Central are:

• The library has listed three ways for students to receive help, by email, by phone, and in person.
• The library hours are shown on the library home page. There is no need to move to a new page to locate this information.
• The page contains an easy-to-use site menu on the left hand side.
• The labels for the tools are clear and easy to understand.
• There are easily identified links to help get started with using the site. There are links to the library catalog, to periodicals, to helpful websites, and for assistance with writing up the results.
• The links are easy to navigate and understand.
• Easy access to the other SCC libraries from the page.
• The website is uncluttered and the information has been recently updated.

Harvard University Libraries

http://lib.harvard.edu

The outstanding qualities that led me to choose Harvard are:

• The website was creatively designed, especially the home page. The top of the home page showcases collections about Black History Month topics, as well as highlighting the digital collections available through the libraries. Access to the libraries' resources are located in the lower half of the home page.
• Access to the various library resources are separated into categories and each category is given a column.
• When you click on links in a particular category, each linked page within that category has the same style and format. Every category has a different page design.
• The labels for the categories and links are clear and concise.
• The page designs throughout are clean and simple. They are not distracting to the eye.

Libraries of the Claremont Colleges

http://libraries.claremont.edu

The qualities that made the libraries of the Claremont Colleges a choice are:

• There are four liberal arts schools that form the Claremont Colleges. Having a combined library webpage allows students to access materials from all four colleges at once.
• The home page has beautiful images that enhance rather than distract from the purpose of the site.
• Hours for all four libraries for the current day are available in the upper right corner of the home page.
• There is easy access to the catalog, the databases, the journals, the collections, and the reserves from the center of the page.
• The home page contains access to the individual libraries.
• There is a nice how to... section where students can access frequently needed information.
• The page contains up-to-date news for the libraries.
• Easy access to help from a librarian.

University of Texas at Austin Libraries

http://www.lib.utexas.edu

The reasons for selecting the University of Texas at Austin library are:

• Important tools are located at the top of the page in drow down menus that are easy to access.
• When the page loads, the research tools drop down menu is automatically displayed, giving the user immediate access to the catalog, databases, periodicals, and other search methods.
• Additional resources are separated into categories and placed in boxes at the bottom of the page. There categoreis are for students, faculty, web searching through Google Scholar, news, and "Utopia".
• Every time the home page loads, a different photo from the library is shown.
• The links are clearly marked and easy to access.
• The design of the page is original, when compared to other academic library webpages.

College of Charleston Libraries

http://www.cofc.edu/~library

The outstanding aspects of the College of Charleston Libraries are:

• There are four categories into which library resources were placed. Each category is color coded for easy identification.
• The site has the ability to browse by subject/major.
• The home page contains a way to immediately start searching the catalog. The home page also contains news about the library.
• There is easy access to the most commonly used features through the category boxes.
• The pages are uncluttered and easy to access.

References

"Evaluating Web Sites." Lesley Libraries. 31 Oct. 2006. Lesley University. 12 Feb. 2007 http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/research/evaluating_web.html#topofpage .