Website Design Process: Directing Traffic

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Website Design Process Directing Traffic
Who are our travelers or audience? What do
they want to know/do? What do we want them to
know/do?

• Consult with their departmental liaison
• Recommend purchases/cancellations using forms
• Understand collection development procedures
  policies
• Promote database trials, ILL, Reserves, and Media
  services

Faculty

• Consult with faculty, find out their needs /
  wants
• Use professional tools and forms to recommend
  purchases / cancellations
• Schedule their liaison activities using the
  calendar
• Understand collection development procedures
  policies

Librarians

• Promote the opportunity to donate to the library
• Instruct them about collection development
  policies and practices
• Inform them of collection facts and statistics
• Promote database trials, ILL, Reserves, Media
  services

Everyone
Assess Content What are our landmarks? What
do we have already? What do we need to build?
Some content had already established a presence
on the librarys website. In most cases, we
simply linked to those pre-existing pages (e.g.,
database trials, library liaisons contact
information). In other instances, we chose to
repeat content on the collection development
homepage, (e.g., reserves, ILL, media services)
so that we could reinforce the unification of the
department and give the user one-stop shopping
convenience. In still other instances, some
content was brand new, (e.g. Collection
Development Toolkit, Librarian-Faculty Liaison
Program, Selecting Library Materials, Collection
Development Calendar, Donor information).
Use a content map to develop consistent
navigation and determine how many mouse-clicks a
user is from your content.
Provide consistent navigationno dead end pages
Chunk information
Help your user by hotlinking chunks of
information at the top of long pages. Provide an
alternate PDF or Word document if it is likely to
be printed.
For more information, contact John Barnett Mary
Holland Director of Collection Development Interli
brary Loan and Serials Assistant Musselman
Library Musselman Library Gettysburg
College Gettysburg College 300 N. Washington
Street 300 N. Washington Street Gettysburg, PA
17325 Gettysburg, PA 17325 [phone] (717)
337-7005/7003 jbarnett_at_gettysburg.edu mholland_at_ge
ttysburg.edu
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The relevance of a web presence A web presence
promotes the librarys liaison program, its
outreach efforts, and its acquisition of
materials and development of services that
support the college curriculum.
A web presence also serves to instruct faculty,
students, and library staff about collection
development issues and problems.
In addition, a web presence serves as
information central for forms, tools, and
services for librarian liaisons and library staff
involved in collection development matters. These
resources are what library staff need to perform
their collection development duties. A web
presence further illustrates the importance and
depth of these duties in their daily work.
A web presence also provides a public face to
collection development, providing access to
collection development policies, gift and donor
information, collection statistics, and ways to
suggest purchases.