I am interested in collecting information about library web sites that we consider exemplary for their design and functionality. Please comment on this posting with URLs to sites that have an outstanding overall design or pages that you think handle a function well.
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The library site at Cal State U San Marcos has a nice clean design and makes the subject guides very prominent on the home page.
I really like the new NYU Law Library website ( http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/index.htm ). Clean look, clear categories & all the finding tools on one page (see Julius catalog).
Here’s a preview of the new NYPL web site. I like this site because it was designed with user-oriented input. http://ow.ly/N2x9
University of Toronto Libraries homepage has a uncluttered, clean interface and is easy to navigate…I think.
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/home/
Lorcan Dempsey from OCLC Research offers a nice analysis of why the new library web sites at the University of Michigan and Miami University are notable.
We recently launched our new site for the Gleeson Library @ the University of San Francisco. http://web.usfca.edu/library/ In our case, design by committee worked out quite well. USF used White Whale http://www.whitewhale.net/ for the overall USF redesign and the library site followed. WW has also helped Middlebury, Lewis and Clark, Haverford and a number of other universities with web design. If you want to get a feel for the process we went though at USF, you can check out our redesign blog http://www.whitewhale.net/hello/usf/blog/
Out of the ones listed above, I liked the University of Toronto best; the tabs are well done and easy to use. This site from the University of Denver is functional and nicely laid out as well, but the font and colors could be nicer (appearance is important too). http://library.du.edu/
What I liked about these sites was that you do not have to scroll down for anything–most library sites require you to move down the page to see all the content. Tabs might work well on our site.
I tend to agree with the statement ‘The only thing that matters to a company of any size is its product and customer experience. That’s it. That’s what creates value.’
Here are a few overseas academic library websites I came across that are ‘above the fold’ and not in my opinion too overwhelming at first glance:
Bodleian Library (Oxford)
Ewha Womans (!) University (Korea)
Please see my 23 April 2010 post on instructional aspects of the library website for additional exemplary web sites that Randy Hensley, Lisa Ellis, Linda Rath, and I identified.