What Does This Mean to Me, Laura?

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The sins of library web sites

Author: Laura

August 13, 2008

Ah, Twitter is a wonderful thing. I asked members of the Twitterverse to catalog the problems of library web sites, and my followers (as friends on Twitter are called) did not disappoint. I got responses not only from both library and non-library folks, but even a bit of international participation with a comment or two from Australia.

Here’s a sample of much of what I received:

“Nonsensical links to products by name. Bookletters, EBSCO, iBistro.”
“Branch hours/locations not easy to find from the library home page.”
Having to…”scroll waaay down to bottom to find search box and then was Title(not keyword).”
“Animated gifs and blinking text.”
“Focus on library materials and facilities, rather than how people use our materials and facilities.”
“Acronyms.”
“No site search. C’mon, time to leave 1998.”
“Hiding your staff and/or hiding ways (or not providing them at all) to contact staff through the web site.”
“Library jargon: what the heck is a ‘electronic reference database’ to the layperson?”

I saw at least one major theme here: many libraries don’t have sites that are intended for the end user. Too many library sites are designed around the perceived needs of library staff, rather than for their patrons. I encourage every library to take a good, hard look at their public-facing web site(s) and ask the question “Who is this really for?”

Here’s some additional sins I’ll add to the list:

Can’t find the address and/or phone number for at least the main branch on the front page.
Too much text on the front page. Don’t put the whole 3-paragraph story there; just a teaser. People scan the web; they don’t read. When I see too much text, I’m outta there.

What other problems with library web sites do you commonly see? Share’em in the comments!

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