While institutions often take that approach, I am not sure that people do, at least if there is an alternative. Sure, folks might go to the home page once or twice to get to the library home page, just as they might use a campus map to find a library building, but folks who use the library's online resources often are not likely to be going that route.

Your library stats should tell the tale of how folks are getting there. 

Cary

On Dec 17, 2013, at 11:18 AM, Lisa Rabey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 2:07 PM, Jonathan Rochkind <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>> Hmm, this sounds weird to say, but it never occured to me that most students
>> would start from the institutional home page, or really ever visit the
>> institutional home page at all. Largely because most institutional home
>> pages are nearly useless for current affiliates of the institution, but are
>> instead perhaps marketting brochures for prospectives.
>> 
>> I wonder how many students or other current affiliates actually start at
>> institutional home pages how often.
> 
> At both institutions I've worked as a librarian, one a major
> university system and the second, a community college, the emphasis
> has always been to start from the college's landing page and go
> forward to find information and then, department landing pages are
> introduced as alternate option. So I've always assumed this is how
> _all_ institutions work. However, my experience may be limited as
> these are the only two institutions I've worked at as a librarian.
> 
> -Lisa