As you can see, the library website has a new design! What do you think? Leave a comment below or e-mail us!
[Edited to add: we have been getting a lot of attempts from spammers to post comments on this entry, so comments are now closed. If you have any additional comments or questions, please feel free to e-mail me - Laura Harris - at harlaura [at] gvsu.edu.]
Change is not always good, especially if you don’t leave people a link to access original search functions. The new websites assume an embarrassing level of incompetence among users. Please, just give a link where we can search the catalog by TITLE, Journal Title, etc…
Thanks!
Hello, Danielle – my name is Laura Harris, and I’m the web services librarian. Thank you for your feedback on the new web design.
I’m very sorry you think that we assume an embarrassing level of incompetence among users – that was not our intention. We attempted to design the page so that it would be useful to both novice and expert users; we consulted both students and faculty in our redesign. Our usage statistics show a preference for Encore, rather than the Classic catalog, which is why we removed the search box you describe from the home page. The Classic catalog is still available (under the ‘How do I find books?’ link) – but perhaps that is not obvious? Do you have any suggestions on how we might make this clearer to other expert users such as yourself?
In the meantime, I have made a few changes that I hope will make your browsing experience better – I’ve added a search box for our “Classic” catalog (which has the drop-down menu to which you refer) to our How do I find books? page. I’ve also added a page called How do I find magazines and journals? which will allow you to search by journal title.
If you have any further comments or suggestions, please feel free to contact me directly at harlaura (at) gvsu.edu.
In my opinion, the catalog search field is much too small, or at least I don’t think that it’s brought to the public’s attention enough. During my first time on the page I skipped over it assuming it was a Google search field or a GVSU website search field. I liked that in the previous design this field was showcased – I felt like it was an integral part of the page rather than an afterthought.
Hi, Dan – actually the search box on the home page is not for the catalog – it is for a resource called Summon that allows one to search for books, articles, and more all at once. We decided to left-align the search box in order to draw more attention to it, and this placement did well in our user testing. Do you have suggestions on how we might better draw the eye to this search? Thanks for your feedback!
where do I find the search engines such as academic search premier?
Hi, Josh – I think you’re looking for the databases. There’s a link to the Databases on the home page (right next to the search box) and then you can find Academic Search Premier by clicking on the letter ‘A.’ Let me know if this doesn’t answer your question!
Prof. Leek asked me to include her response to my comment above:
It’s far too sweet that you responded directly, I’m going to use my embarrassing, hostile post, as a “teachable moment” in my civic engagement class this semester, especially since I didn’t really mean to post it. But away it went!! Here’s a good example of why you should always write your comments in a separate document, and then cut & paste… so you have time to think before you post! Sorry for the tone. It came out of sheer frustration that I was trying to do work and got an unexpected site that I couldn’t navigate immediately. I hope you might also post this in the blog. It’s important for all of us to remember to acknowledge when our communication is less than ideal.
That said, I’m not surprised that students prefer encore. It makes sense if you want to start with a “find anything related to my topic” search.
I think I was frustrated because I don’t want to “learn how to find a book”– I just want to see if we have it. I figured out how to go from “catalog” to “classic catalog”– now I’d like the “classic catalog” to include a “journal title” function so that I don’t have to do a fake search to get to the page where I can have that option…
Hope this is helpful.
Prof. Leek
Due to the fact that I was so use to the old site, I am not a fan of the new one. Things are hard to find on the new site. For instance, the other day I had a hard time finding where to simply search for a book. And today, I am having a hard time finding the databases.
Hi, Leah, and thanks for your comment – I just sent you a response via e-mail.
I do not like this new style. I spent all of last semester in my CAP 115 research class learning how to use all the features and finding my way around the site quickly. Now I have to waste time re-learning where things are. The old site was perfect.
Sorry this comment is so late and not all that useful, but I wanted to take a little time to get used to before I decided what I think about it. It does have a couple extra steps to get where I want, but I know I can always get there, so that is nice. Overall, I think it is very well done… so thank you very much.
I do not like the new website. Instead of being able to quickly find what I needed, I have to click on multiple links that waste my time. Also, the new design in boring and less tasteful than the old design. This new site looks like a starter site and not the distinguished, welcoming site that the library once had. Hopefully, another change will come to the site because now, it is more confusing than helpful. In my opinion, another redesign would better suit users.