A fresh look at the library homepage

The Robert Goldwater Library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas is the first library I’ve looked at that seems to have fully embraced the changing face of technology. The library’s homepage is actually the Robert Goldwater Library Online Resource, a blog. This format allows the homepage for the library to be updated easily and regularly, and to include comments, trackback and other blog features. This site, with all its peripheral features, epitomizes the current prospects of “Web 2.0.”

One reason I think that the Robert Goldwater Library turns the idea of the library homepage on its head is that the OPAC is not the main feature. All of the other libraries I have looked at here (and indeed every library homepage I’ve ever seen) focuses on the catalog, searching, and collection access as its main purpose. Links to library events, library news, services, blogs, etc., are secondary in some way. If there is is a search bar anywhere on a library homepage, you can usually guess that it will search the catalog and not the web (unless is specifically says otherwise). For the Goldwater Library homepage, there is a link to the catalogs, but it is below the links to the Goldwater Library Wiki, the goldwaterlibrary’s del.icio.us page, and the Robert Goldwater Library’s flickr photostream.

The catalog is listed under the category of “Goldwater Library Resources” with these other tools. This seems to put it on the same level as these other tools. This seems both astute and self-fulfilling. Internet users are using “Web 2.0″ tools alongside, and instead of searching the library catalog. Because the tools are right there with the catalog, they will be used more frequently. For users who are unfamiliar with the blog format, the homepage would be fairly easy to navigate. The catalog link may take a bit to find, but once found, the user could use the catalog as she or he would any other OPAC.

The goldwaterlibrary’s del.icio.us page categorizes the list of tags. This is a handy feature since the actual site links on del.icio.us are ordered temporally. After doing a keyword search in the catalog (yes, “fudge”), I found that the entries do not have a link to add the finding to del.icio.us. The catalog is surprisingly “Web 2.0″-free, in fact. The same issues of usability for new users that I’ve mentioned in previous posts (MIT post, K-State post) would be an issue here, too. The classification of the tags might help a new user to understand their purpose or at least their organization.

The library’s flickr photostream is also heavily classified. Some categories only contain one image. The images range photos of pieces in the gallery’s collection, to photos of crews in the process of setting up exhibits, to photos from art openings and events. A new user to flickr would have a fairly easy time navigating the site since the images are put in well-labeled categories, and are titled in descriptive, plain language. Since the only real purpose of the flickr photostream seems to be to store, make available, and tag museum photos, the only real purpose to the user would be to browse or search the photos for interest or research. This can easily be done with the help of the categories and titles.

I would use the del.icio.us account that the library has set up to access the sites that the library (and staff) think are relevant to the field and the collections. I would also browse the flickr site, although not likely for the purpose of tagging photos. I like the idea of revisioning the library homepage. It seems that the web hasn’t even been around long enough for libraries to be too attached to the way homepages are being done. Maybe it’s time to rethink.

del.icio.us and Clouds at K-State Libraries

Taking a look at the K-State Libraries homepage, I found that they have an RSS feed, but I didn’t see any evidence of the K-State Libraries blog. I even looked at the site index and searched “blog” on the site. I couldn’t find any direct and obvious links to the blog as a whole. I think this is too bad since the blog is well kept up and informative. Unfortunate that many people won’t be liable to stumble onto it, or even find it if they know about it.

Finally, I tracked it down. Under “About the Libraries” on the homepage, I clicked on “more about us…” and that took me to a page that listed “Library blogs” as a link. Whew! It’s not very simple to find, but I’m not very simple, either.  Given that the library has a blog, I wasn’t surprised to find that it is using other “Web 2.0″ technologies (and formats) as well.

The blog doesn’t use tags, but they have chosen to display their categories as a cloud. I find this interesting because it is kind of the opposite of what I mentioned in my post about the MIT virtualref del.icio.us page. Where the virtualref del.icio.us page has the tags in list format, resembling the familiarity of category lists, the K-Libraries blog uses the cloud for categories, resembling tagging. I find the cloud inviting and informative in an intuitive way. I automatically know roughly how many blogs are in certain categories as compared to others by glancing at the difference in type size and boldness.  Click on the link to the blog above, or see screenshot below:

I suppose that a user who is new to the idea of tagging and tag clouds might find this format a bit bewildering. It might look more like a wordart project than a list of categories. I think that mousing over the terms, and clicking on a couple would clarify their purpose, though. It may still not be clear what the difference in type-size and boldness refers to. Either way, I like the borrowing from the tagging world for formatting traditional categories.

Looking into the OPAC (I always like to see what a keyword search for “fudge” brings up), I noticed that there is an option right in the entry to tag the item in del.icio.us. The link opens the del.icio.us login page in a new window. (Kudos on targeting it to a new window, avoiding one of my pet peeves).

I’m not a del.icio.us user. I tried when it first hit the market, but I found it too much work to keep it up. Actually, I think my issue was that I was encouraged to set up an account by a friend and fellow poet. She was looking forward to creating a small community of poets and writers who could share their links with each other and enrich each other’s lives, poetry, etc. I felt kind of stressed to keep hunting for, and tagging new and interesting literary sites. It overwhelmed me and I gave it up, never turning back, until now.

Usually, there is some sort of way on an OPAC to save the items you find. I find that you can then save them to file, print them, or email them to yourself. All of these ways seem to reformat the entries so that I find them difficult to read. I think it is so much better to be able to set up a del.icio.us account and then tag the entries in there. That way they can be organized however I want. I could also share them with other students who might benefit from my research in future assignments. I like the idea. I would use this tool if I found it in an OPAC.

The K-State Libraries seem to be concerned about adapting to new technologies with their blog and RSS feed. I wasn’t surprised to find the link to del.icio.us, given the other technologies. I would suggest also setting up a del.icio.us account for the library. I think that is a great way to add to the library’s effectiveness as a place to look for information.