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| Winter 2003 Issue |
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Do Millenials Dream of Electric Libraries?The WVU Libraries Web Team is pleased to present the Libraries new web
site, offering more services than ever for WVU students, staff, and faculty.
The new site was ready and waiting for the largest incoming freshman class
in WVU’s history. This class belongs to a new generation, and the new site is designed
to work well with their information seeking behaviors. Some of the observed
characteristics of Generation Y or Millennials (students that graduated
from high school in the new millennium) include confidence and energy,
passionate tolerance, an emphasis on teamwork and community, focus and
a drive to change. These sophisticated computer users will be able to
navigate through the vast amount of information organized and presented
by the Libraries. The design includes simple but detailed menus that will
lead users to the type of information they need. The amount of research material directly available through the Libraries
web site has increased exponentially since the original site launched
eight years ago. The WVU community has unlimited access to more than 10,000
electronic journals and more than 100 specialized research databases from
anywhere they can access the web. Newspapers such as the New York Times are available in full text from
1851 to the present day. Online dictionaries, encyclopedias, and many
other reference sources are also available through the site. Library web site users were consulted about what they wanted on the site.
Using this information, the team developed and studied a prototype for
usability. Along with the usability study results, a panel of web experts
in design, graphics, and accessibility were consulted to create the current
site from the prototype. “The design of a web site has a half-life of about 18 months,”
Beth Toren, coordinator of the team, said. “Technology is changing
more rapidly than ever, so new developments become obsolete quicker. We
designed the new site with this in mind. Our information architecture
is simple and stable enough to change with the times. We are pleased to
welcome the new class with a new generation of web services.” If you have any questions about the site, feel free to contact Beth Toren
at (304) 293-4040 Ext. 4018 or btoren@wvu.edu You can visit the new site at: http://www.libraries.wvu.edu |
| Ex Libris is published quarterly
by the WVU Libraries | |
