Come together: A common vocabulary for University of California library homepages

ACRL TechConnect Susan Mikkelsen, Kristine Ferry, Rachael Hu, Brian Mathews, Deborah A. Murphy Come together A common vocabulary for University of California library homepages A cademic library Web sites are complex mixes of information gateways and links to resources and services. Hours, staff directories, research guides, room reservation systems, catalogs, databases, and donor infor- mation are just a handful of the many things users look for when they visit library sites. Keeping homepages simple, uncluttered, and easy to navigate is a challenge for library Web masters, and the costs to create and maintain Web sites are significant. To this end, the University of California (UC) Libraries Heads of Public Services (HOPS) recently charged a taskforce to estab- lish a set of shared best practices for library homepage nomenclature, content, and lay- out. Libraries in the ten-campus UC system currently share a number of resources and services: electronic collections, consortial bor- rowing, and 24/7 digital reference to name a few. Yet each of the ten libraries hosts and maintains its own Web page, each as unique as the campus it serves. Exploring cooperative options for library Web sites is consistent with other UC efforts to streamline operations and eliminate redun- dancies across campuses. If adopted, a set of best practices would not only create a more uniform experience for users across the UC system, but also has the potential to eliminate duplication of time and effort in future Web redesigns. Digital reference librarians who assist users from all ten campuses could also provide better service if homepages were standardized. Our taskforce conducted an analysis of top content from multiple UC library Web sites C&RL News June 2011 and QuestionPoint (chat reference) transcripts to determine essential home-page elements. We then collected and reviewed current no- menclature and created graphical scans of each library’s homepage. We also consulted the literature and used our own firsthand experiences with Web design to support our recommendations for layout. We referred to data from a California Digital Libraries mobile environmental scan as we considered recom- mendations for mobile Web site elements. Process We began our analysis by conducting a thorough inventory of existing homepage elements and nomenclature on all ten UC Library homepages, identifying common elements on each homepage, and recording the nomenclature used for each element. All nomenclature variations were noted and tal- lied when duplications existed. This process gave us an awareness of the great variation in nomenclature on UC library homepages. For example, the element “VPN,” was found on all ten homepages, but named six different ways: Susan Mikkelsen is resource access and instruction librarian at University of California-Merced’s Kolligian Library, e-mail: smikkelsen@ucmerced.edu, Kristine Ferry is head of access services at University of California-Irvine, e-mail: kferry@uci.edu, Rachael Hu is user experience design manager at California Digital Library, e-mail: rachael.hu@ucop.edu, Brian Mathews is assistant university librarian, outreach and academic services, at University of California-Santa Barbara, e-mail: bmathews@library.ucsb.edu, Deborah A. Murphy is Web content librarian at University of California-Santa Cruz, e-mail: damurphy@ucsc.edu © 2011 Susan Mikkelsen, Kristine Ferry, Rachael Hu, Brian Mathews, Deborah A. Murphy