Reconstruction: Library Web interface conforms with BYU-I Web site, made more accessible to students

The David O. McKay Library has restructured its home page to standardize it with the BYU-Idaho Web site. The school is moving toward making all of its Web sites look more uniform. Those who remade the library home page were looking to make it more accessible to the student who use it. Photo courtesy www.lib.byui.edu

A new semester means more reports, assignments and research papers.

Although the due dates for these assignments may be months away, the assignments listed on most BYU-Idaho students’ syllabi will likely include at least one assignment that will require a visit to the David O. McKay Library.

As students return from break and start their new assignments, they will encounter a new home page on the library’s Web site.

The new home page features a more accessible quick search of the library catalog and quick links to the top five visited sites the library offers.

“The main goal is to get people to the information,” Matt Miles, library systems director and coordinator for the library’s new Web site, said.

In designing the new home page, the library tried to steer students to the scholarly and authoritative information that the library offers, he said.

Miles and the library staff organized the new home page so that most of the information students need is no more than three mouse clicks from the library’s home page.

The new home page also features a new search box.

The library catalog search box was too difficult to find on the old Web page, Library Director Martin Raish, said.

“Students want a box. They want to be able to type something in a box and hit enter,” Raish said.

The new quick search box is not as detailed a search but will help students find things in the library more quickly, he said.

The newest changes to the Web site mark the fourth major change to the Web site since the library posted its first home page.

The changes surfaced as part of a process to standardize all of BYU-I’s Web pages.

The goal for the standardization is to have all the university’s Web pages have the same look, feel and navigation, Merv Brown of Public Relations for BYU-I said.

The new library home page complies with the university’s standards by displaying the university’s navigation bar and the BYU-I logo and title of the library on a gray banner, he said.

“They might seem like subtle changes, but they make a big difference,” Miles said.

In creating the new Web site, the library surveyed over 100 students at random and used student input to decide how to organize the site, Miles said.

The students surveyed were asked to group index cards showing information that can be found in the library into topics. The students were then asked to name the group of cards. The library used the most common name given by students for the titles of the tabs appearing on their new Web site, he said.

The new home page is surprising to some students.

“When I first saw it, it was a shock. I think once I get used to it, it will be the same,” Elizabeth McCraken, a junior from Idaho Falls, said.

The library will continue to survey students to test the effectiveness of the site.

The home page contains a link for comments from students and faculty. User comments about the new home page are welcomed and will be reviewed by the library for possible adaptation in the future, Miles said.

“We are always looking for ways to improve the site,” Miles said.