CiL2008: Engaging an Audience

This talk showed off the Penn State library website and what they've done for novice users. The main site is really geared towards expert users - those who already know how to do research, who know what they want and how to get it, and don't need hand-holding. (It's much like our site, as a matter of fact.)

They created a page geared towards novice users, primarily incoming freshmen who don't have much experience in research. They call it Research JumpStart. It gets rid of much of the wide variety of choices that confuse the heck out of people new to this, and offers a few stripped-down essentials. There's a simple catalog search box right at the top. The next box contains a simple search box that searches ProQuest. (The Penn State Libraries have some sort of deal going with ProQuest where they heavily promote it as one of the primary databases to use.) Then they have links to the the most-used subject guides - there's more in the system, but they took the top 25 or 30 most-used. Then there's a box with Quick Links to other frequently-used pages on the site: hours, course reserves, the e-resources list, etc. They also seeded the page heavily with an ASK button that goes to the Ask a Librarian pages, and they have a Meebo search box on the side.

I actually like this concept a lot - it solves the problem of how to make your site accessible for novice users while not dumbing it down for the advanced users. It also keeps users from getting lost in the site. The only thing I don't like is that the link to it from the main page is waaay over to the side, where you won't see it unless you look through everything (well, and the reliance on one database).

Now about the tech side: the page is built with widgets created with a site called Widget Box, which allows you to create widgets, and hosts them on its own site. Each widget is basically a self-contained program, or application, that you can take and put on your own website, or use something like iGoogle, a personalized Google start page, to build your own website of frequently-used and useful widgets. They promote this in their library instruction, showing students and faculty how they can build their own page of relevant links and widgets. They report that faculty and grad students really appreciate this ability.