As a matter of advocacy for library services, I think you want to have the library web site as high up the campus web site hierarchy as possible. We're under the "Academics" link on the menu that appears on virtually every university web page. While I see the point another made about needing a degree of freedom from the campus template -- and we've certainly waged that campaign here -- I don't think that's a good enough reason to disengage altogether from the university web site. Play ball with the marketing and communications people and you'll eventually help them understand what you can fit into their template and what needs to be just a bit outside the box.
Jim
_________________________________________
James Hammons, MA, MLS
Head of Library Technologies
University Libraries 765-285-8032 (phone)
Ball State University 765-285-2008 (fax)
Muncie, IN 47306 [log in to unmask]
www.bsu.edu/library
The University Libraries provide services that
support student pursuits for academic success
and faculty endeavors for knowledge creation
and classroom instruction.
-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Matthew Sherman
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 9:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Academic Library Website Question
Hi Code4Libbers,
Slightly odd question for you academic library folks. Why does your library have its website where it is on the university site? For context, the library I currently work at has our library site hidden within the campus intranet/portal, so that students have to log into a web portal to even see the search page. This was a decision by the previous director who was here before my time and an assortment of us librarians think this is a terrible setup. So I wanted to kick out to the greater community to give us good reasons for free to the website to more general access, or help us to understand why you would bury it behind a login like they did. All thoughts, insights, and opinions are welcome, they all help us develop our thinking on this and our arguments for any changes we want to make. Thanks everyone and have a good week.
Matt Sherman
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