Design of a Web Page for Librarians’ Daily Use Jiabin Wang Engineering and Computer Science Library University of Toronto science/firststopfolder/firststop.html

What Librarians Use as Home Page Librarians usually set their own library’s web page as the Internet browser’s home page. However a library’s web page is designed for library users, not librarians. It cannot fully satisfy librarian’s needs.

Why Librarians Use Internet n Search the library catalogue. n Search electronic indexes on a certain topic and verify a specific item. n Search union catalogues and other libraries’ catalogues. n Search standards, technical reports, patents using many different web sites. n Search any general information our users need n Use to communicate.

How Librarians Use Internet n Librarians need to switch among sites frequently covering many different sites. n Frequency of use for different sites is not distributed evenly: some sites are heavily used and some are used only occasionally. n They spend lots of time on Internet and thus many hand, finger and eye movements are involved. n They need to show library users how to use the internet while using it.

Design a Web Page for Librarians: Some Consideration n As a tool used everyday, consider ease of use, time saving and reduction of hand, finger and eye movements. n Efficient use of screen space. Should not be too crowded; scrolling should be reduced to the minimum. n Jobs other than searching the Internet should be linked. n Reduce steps.

Layout of FirstStop Side menu Top menu Library’s web page Quick Pad