building digital l braries Step by Step to Information Nexus

摘要

Library websites play an interesting role inthe universe of digital resources we now takefor granted. We rely upon them daily, yet weseem to have much to complain about. Manycolleagues of mine are quick to find fault withlarge research library websites, citing poor us-ability and missing interactive applications.Worse still, they argue, is the stodgy webmas-ter who keeps too tight a rein on data ownerswho want to create a dynamic site out of a de-partmental page. These two beefs I cite arevalid, and the full list of complaints is long. Yetthe very "Dullsville" websites that receive suchcomplaints are nonetheless workhorses thatrefer very heavy traffic to content in demand.Even with all of the complaints you couldgather to create a "diss session" on library web-sites, the fact remains: They work.