Section III:
Broadening research Opportunities
The Library & AIT Websites

The Brooklyn College Library Website
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/library
Beth Evans, webmistress

Redesigning the Library Website
At the start of the spring 2000 semester, the Brooklyn College Library launched its
redesigned website. The new site is the result of the work of a group of library faculty
and professional staff including Jocelyn Berger, Sally Bowdoin, Martha Corpus, Jane
Cramer, Marianne LaBatto, Mariana Regalado, and Irwin Weintraub; library support
staff including Fulda Favretto and Michael Mayo; and Academic Information
Technologies professional and support staff including Gilbert Midonnet, Alex Kravets,
and Angela Sukhatyaka. Webmistress Beth Evans led the group whose work began with
the goal of making our electronic resources (for which we spend a great deal of money)
more visible and easily navigated.
  • In order to improve the site's navigation and appearance, all the interior pages.
    accessed from the right?hand navigation bar were inserted into a template.

  • Many new resources were added to the Research Resources subject and
    alphabetic lists as well as the Ready Reference Desk.

  • A table of Brooklyn College course?related websites was developed and mounted.

  • Instructions for proxy access were added.

  • The Help with Research section was restructured and enriched with more links.

  • New top pages for Initiatives and Virtual Exhibits were developed.

  • The content of the Virtual Exhibits area was supplemented.
    • The Brooklyn College Full-Text Electronic Journal Database
    During the fall 2000 semester CA Michael Mayo worked on our subject resources
    database with the help of two interns from CIS, Alan Lau and Marc Browne, who were
    under the guidance of Lori Scarlatos. One of the interns, Alan Lau, continues working
    with Michael in the spring 2001 semester to complete the project.
  • During the fall semester Michael and the interns gave a demonstration of the
    database's librarian interface.

  • In March 2001 there will be a demonstration of the fully functioning database.

  • Next, we will incorporate the database with the Library website, consulting our
    colleagues in ITS about certain technical concerns about where the database will
    reside.

  • During the spring semester 2001 Michael and Alan will continue working on
    enhancements to the database (responding to suggestions made by librarians in the
    Library website working group) while the initial version runs on the Library site.

    • During intersession 2001 Michael Mayo and webmistress Beth Evans met with Professor
    Lori Scarlatos (CIS; the interns' supervisor) to discuss the project and more effective
    approaches to working with the interns. An ongoing issue has been locating working space
    that (a) is always available and (b) contains an adequate number of computers for all the
    programmers involved in the project. Michael Mayo may not be available beyond the
    spring 2001 semester. Should he leave the Library, Jim Cai will provide ongoing technical
    assistance.

    The Subject Specialists' Web Pages
    http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/library/electronic_resources/subjects.htm

    As an adjunct to the redesign of the Library Web pages, each bibliographer began to
    update or create his or her subject specialist page. Those completed for art and
    health/nutrition are good examples of what librarians have built:

    http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/library/electronic_resources/art.html
    http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/library/weintraub/health_nutrition.html

    Website Maintenance Plan
    Despite its recent overhaul, the Library website will continue to offer opportunities for
    further development. Staff also wish to assess its public reception. To these ends, a plan
    for updating and assessing the site was created by Beth Evans and her team.
  • Many resources are appropriately placed in several different spots on the Library
    website (for example, Sociological Abstracts belongs in a list of all e-resources, but
    must also appear on subject pages for sociology, anthropology, ethnic studies,
    women's studies, etc.). This means that a database-driven site makes much more
    sense for the Library than one consisting of static pages. Such a site will also
    enable us to offer search engine access to these resources for people who prefer a
    keyword rather than subject approach to information. College Assistant Michael
    Mayo     has undertaken the programming for this project. His work is described
    immediately above.


  • Michael Mayo is also developing an interface that the subject specialists will use
    to input, view, and edit database entries in their own subject areas.


  • Nicholas Irons and Alex Rudshteyn are supporting the database project with a
    dedicated server configured with Linux. The prototype should be ready shortly.
    • Website Assessment Plan
    The many people who use the Library website approach it with a range of technological
    capabilities, research orientations, and information needs. For these reasons, it is
    important that Library staff observe readers using the site. In this way, we can evaluate
    its success and refine it using what we learn.
  • We plan to establish observation groups representing each of our major user
    populations--freshmen, upperclassmen, graduate students, faculty, and ESL
    students.


  • Subjects will be given a list of goals that can be accomplished using the Library
    website. Some goals will be specific ("Find the location of the Brooklyn College
    music library") and some will be more open-ended ("You need to find information
    about the political parties in El Salvador"). Subjects will also be asked general
    questions about the look and feel of the website.


  • The librarian observers will be trained through role?playing that identifies both
    supportive and potentially corrupting observer behavior. They will record their
    observations on a uniform tally sheet.


  • The Library Web group will analyze the results and the website will be modified
    as experience indicates.
    • User testing for the Library website began with the process of designing the subject
    database. In selecting a standardized terminology for the subject resources (e.g., online
    vs. electronic, database vs. index, etc.), Mariana Regalado queried a number of specific
    user groups (faculty, undergraduates, SEEK students, honors students, alumni/ae) about
    their preferences. Additionally, the website working group asked all the bibliographers
    about their choice of terms. Examining everyone's preferences, the working group made
    decisions for terminology that are expected to satisfy the greatest number of users.

    It is interesting that the informal user testing (or "opinioning") that staff have conducted
    on the Library website has shown that consensus on look and feel is rare. For example, if
    three options are shown for text layout (e.g., a list of statements with no bullets, a list of
    statements with plain black bullets, and a list of statements with diamond bullets) the
    public will evenly divide in its preferences, with each group quite definite about what it likes.

    The Academic Information Technologies Website
    http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ait
    Gilbert Midonnet (through January, 2000); Jim Cai (from September, 2000), webmaster Work to revise the AIT site began in the fall 2000. The new site, the project of Jim Cai,
    will be database driven. It will permit workshop registration, classroom scheduling, and so
    forth. Jim's work is of exceptional quality, and we look forward to a highly functional and
    attractive new site.