The New Library Web Site

Andy Morton, along with others in the Library, and Eric Palmer and the Web Services group have just this morning launched the new University of Richmond Library web site.  As Andy mentioned in a message on Twitter this morning, it’s a project he’s been working on since October 2008.  I know he’s been thinking about the new site for a lot longer than that.

Much research has been done on how students, faculty, and staff use the library site, and the new design reflects both an effort to help our community access the content they need as efficiently as possible as well as an effor to engage with our community however they want to connect.

One of my favorite features on the new site is the all-in-one search bar at the top of every web page.  From one tabbed interface you can search our catalog, our journals, our databases, our research guides, or the library site itself.  Just click on a tab and either enter your search terms.  It’s a significant step toward the dream of an integrated search across all resources, and I know a lot of work went into the design and functions of this feature.

The new site is more visual than any of our prior library sites, highlighting the library’s services and some of the resources they’ve created.  Search through the Richmond Daily Dispatch to read newspaper articles from 1860-1865.  Check out our campus paper, The Collegian, with archives online from 1914-2003.  Visit Amarica at War 1941-1945 and view documents from the Federal Depository Colelction at UR.

Our library is connected to the social network.  Check out Boatwright Everywhere on the library home page to discover links to Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter.  Boatwright Library is at the center of our university’s academic life and you can keep up with what’s going on through these links.

Data from the MISO Survey indicate that the frequency of use and importance of library web sites is going down.  I will be curious to see how the revisions we’ve made to our web site change the way our community interacts with library resources and services.