In Their Face

I just read a blog post by Karen Coombs about re-thinking the approach we librarians take in developing our library websites. I agree with her thoughts. My mission is to make sure the library is visible where our community is looking for information. One of the first things I did was request that the library's website be added as a link in the "Campus Bookmark" section in the College's course management product. Likewise for the Banner site for student and employee services. These were simple first steps to reducing the number of clicks a patron needs to do to get to the library's resources. I hope to work with my colleagues to conduct focus groups to determine how our students and faculty are able not only to use our website, but also to determine how and where they start looking for information. As Karen points out, a product to give consideration to may be LibX. Linking the College Library to the wider Web enivronment is key to easing the patron's ability to discover information.