Karen M. Drabenstott
Associate Professor
School of Information
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1092 USA
Voice: (734) 763-3581
Fax: (734) 764-2475
karen.drabenstott@umich.edu
Many thanks to Robert Helfer for holding our discussion on "Accessible for All? New Information Technologies, Libraries, and Users with Disabilities." For a long time, I have wanted a discussion on this important topic. Let's all thank Robert for doing such a great job.
I have high hopes for our next topic entitled "(Re)packaging the Library for the Web." Paul Doty is our guest editor. Paul is the electronic services librarian at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. He has a BA in English from Keene State College, an MA in English from the University of Maine, and his MLS from SUNY Albany. Along with the St. Lawrence University Libraries Web pages, Paul has helped create and maintain Web pages for writing courses, English Departments, and a student literary magazine.
Please welcome Paul Doty back as a CRISTAL-ED guest editor and join in the conversation.
Paul Doty
Paul_Doty@ccmaillink.stlawu.edu
I suspect that many librarians got into Web page development the way I did: volunteering one still summer afternoon, without any clear idea of even what the acronym HTML stood for. However, Web page development is increasingly a formal responsibility within a variety of library positions, and I think the question of training for this new responsibility needs to be asked. It strikes me that not only does the profession need to address instruction in HTML or other Web development tools, but also needs to address the role of graphic design as a part of library education. The reason I think this is so important is that I think librarians need to consider the extent library home pages should go beyond providing library services and sell library services.
HTML style guides like the Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide provide sound advice about consistency and page layout, but the authors shy away from taking on the question of designing for impact. Yet, without a doubt, the World Wide Web is an advertising-friendly media. At a time when academic libraries are competing within their institutions for funding, and competing with the Internet for their clientele's attention, supplementing the Web pages that provide access to resources with Web pages that promote the library seems to me to be a good use of space. Models for integrating promotion into service Web pages are certainly available on the Internet. The New York Public Libraries' Web presence uses Javascript and graphics to create an impact that visually promotes the different libraries and collections. The University of Washington's UWired Web pages include endorsements for UWired services without particularly distracting from the essential information on the pages.
In her remarkable book, Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its Discontents, Ellen Ullman summed up Web page creation with: "In the end, we simply do what everyone else does on the Net: we advertise." I think that the design skills needed to create effective advertising within the context of an academic library home page are skills that have to be learned and practiced. It strikes me that this is essential training for librarians turned Web page designers.
Questions I would then put before the CRISTAL-ED participants and readers are:
I hope one of these three strikes a chord!
Web page design has a minor place in library education. It is not important for librarians to be able to design Web pages any more than they need to know how to design book covers. They should know the difference between good and bad design and be able to select appropriate designs for the pages for their libraries. They should also know the rules of designing for the Web, which by the way, the New York Public Library does not. To see how to design for the Web visit http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html to see the difference between print and Web.
Graphic design is of minor importance to Web page design. It will increase in importance when band-width improves but at the moment it is more a hindrance than a benefit. Many of the worst Web sites have employed graphic designers rather than information systems designers. I have not got any definitive figures but I suspect that banner advertising and other similar advertising is ineffective and inappropriate on the Web.
This is a question for the University. If the University believes it OK, and vice versa, then why should the library be any different?
Martin J. Cohen
Media Services and Library Systems
Saint Mary's College of California
Moraga CA 94575
mcohen@stmarys-ca.edu
All aspects of publishing should be part of the library education curriculum -- graphic design, economics, marketing, and the technologies of the publishing industry (both paper and electronic). Web page design should be treated as a means of publishing available to libraries -- as part of their service mission, to promote their services, and to create and organize digital library collections.
It would be important not to limit the Web design curriculum to static information pages (however nicely laid out), or to animation, etc. The Web is an interactive medium and will increasingly be used by libraries to deliver services and interact with patrons/library users.
That said, as with other technically based areas of endeavor (principles of database organization, cataloging principles), not all will have aptitude or appetite. Teaching HTML and Web page design should certainly supersede cutting out paper letters for displays and putting up posters for exhibits.
The library is a distinctive place and institution. If it looks (either physically or electronically) like a highway billboard or a hamburger joint on a strip mall, it will lose its identity. Public libraries went through this identity crisis. Some of them converted into subsidized best-seller and action video outlets. In advertising, designing the image for the product or corporation is equally as important as catching the eyes of viewers. If that's understood, then some understanding and use of advertising principles is very apt. Popularly, it may be misinterpreted that your library should have a Web page like HotWired, etc.
Yes. However, beware the definition of "advertise." Even putting up a staid sign is advertising. But may be better advertising (e.g., for a bank) than a blinking neon sign.
Andrew R. Bonamici
Associate University Librarian
Administrative Services
115 Knight Library
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon 97403-1299 USA
Voice: (541) 346-2682
Fax: (541) 346-3485
bonamici@oregon.uoregon.edu
Dear CRISTAL-ED:
Great topic. I believe that Web concepts, architecture, and design are critical elements of library education today. I also agree that we need to use the Web and any other media outlets to effectively market and deliver our services to internal and external constituents.
Re: incorporating graphic design into the curriculum. This is a good idea as long as we recognize that graphic design is a field of study in itself, and a few units in a library school course will not turn someone into a design expert. For example, here are the visual design courses offered at the University of Oregon in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, School of Architecture and Allied Arts:
Graphic Tools 240 (3)
Computers in Visual Design 260 (3-4 R)
Letterform: Calligraphy 380 (3-4 R)
Letterform: Letterpress 381 (4 R)
Letterform: Digital Typography 382 (4 R)
Graphic Symbol 383 (4 R)
Digital Imaging 410-510 (4 R)
Multimedia Design 410510 (4 R)
Elements of Graphic Design 471-571 (4 R)
Advanced Visual Design 477-577 (3-4 R)
Visual Continuity 493-593 (4 R)
Motion Graphics 495-595 (3-4 R)
The UO also has media design and production offerings in the School of Journalism and Communications, computer graphics courses in the department of Computer and Information Science, etc.
A more realistic goal for library education might be to expose future library managers and administrators to graphic design issues, basic terminology, etc., so they can work more effectively with graphic design professionals within their libraries or parent organizations, or with whom they contract.
This being said, our profession could be an attractive option for undergraduates with design degrees, especially if library schools can collaborate with other graduate programs on their campuses to provide qualified students with access to high-level design courses. The same can be said for students with advertising/marketing degrees. Web education should be collaborative at the campus level, mirroring Web development itself, where major efforts (ideally) include information professionals, technologists, subject specialists/content experts, and graphic designers.
I hope these are helpful thoughts.
William F. Birdsall
bill.birdsall@Novanet.NS.CA
Executive Director
Novanet Inc.
6080 Young Street, Suite 601
Halifax, N.S. B3K 5L2
Voice: (902) 453-2461
Fax: (902) 453-2369
This is an interesting and important topic. I urge anyone interested in to take a look at Bryan Reeves and Clifford Nass, "The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People Places and People" (1996). Their research has important implications for libraries moving from the library as place to cyberspace and the design of Web pages and other electronic channels to the library.
Paul B. Wiener
Special Services Librarian
SUNY at Stony Brook
pwiener@ms.cc.sunysb.edu
I enjoyed Paul Doty's clear statement of the library Web page situation, and agree almost completely with his point. Library Web pages, like nearly all Web pages, are advertising and publicity vehicles first, and information pages second. This issue comes up repeatedly here when our own (or the University's) Web page is discussed. Many dislike it, and few can change it. It is currently designed by someone who not only has no talent for design and display, but has little belief that it matters or should matter. The rational-conservative view predominates in this library. The University, on the other hand, (paid) many tens of thousands of dollars to a large design firm for its Web pages and logos, and yet no one likes them anyway. Our current Library browser (Opera) and Web page are underutilized, though there's no way to prove it, because they demand too much participation, and because most users are used to much better pages.
I don't believe, however, that Web page design can really be taught or should be, in library programs. Such talents are more or less inborn, like any artistic talent, and should be left to those who have it or are hired for it. Most deadly (and popular) of all is to leave Web page design to a committee, something Picasso never thought of when painting "Guernica."
As to whether such knowledge should mimic commercial advertising: Are you kidding? It depends on who you're trying to imitate. The vast majority of ads are moronic, insulting, pointless, repetitive and ineffective. The Budweiser frogs have been popular -- do we imitate them? Can we afford two million dollars to pay an ad agency? Will users respond appropriately to our pages if they resemble the garbage they see all day elsewhere? Isn't the Web already teeming with hype and junk mail?
I'm not sure I understand your last question. Should we advertise? Do you mean our services, our collections, commercial items, our staff qualifications? Library T-shirts? Information contests? Should we make promises we can't keep, like every other vendor? If Web pages are innately an advertisement, then whatever we do with them is advertising. And even if our pages are boring , plain, text-only ones, THAT says something about us anyway, whether we like it or not. It's a non-issue.
More to the point, I think, is the danger of overdepending on Web pages, no matter how terrific, informative, user-friendly, or mesmerizing they are. Users still have to find them, have to WANT to find them, have to trust them, have to select them from millions of others, have to have quick responses from them, have to find them more useful than other mediated communications, have to see past the glitz. I'm very skeptical that will or does happen. I believe the kind of information guidance most people want and use is whatever is easiest, fastest, least questionable, and most in-your-face. Posting colorful, well-designed 3x4 foot posters all over campus or town will always be more effective than a Web page, and is NOT inimical to the advertising of information sources or library usage. But it's also more expensive and doesn't translate well to a resume. Contrary to popular mania, "interactive" information gathering isn't what people really want, excepting the tiny cohort of serious scholars out there. "Interactivity" is to information what "Mortal Kombat" is to the Pentagon. The fewer links a Web page requires for an "answer," the more effective it's likely to be. Why? Because I said so.
William F. Birdsall
Executive Director
Novanet Inc.
6080 Young Street, Suite 601
Halifax, NS B3K 5L2
Voice: (902) 453-2461
Fax: (902) 453-2369
bill.birdsall@Novanet.NS.CA
I think perceiving a library's Web site as little more than advertising or provider of information is a narrow conception of the possibilities of Web sites. And graphic design is only a part of the issues involved. At the present time libraries can offer over the Web almost all the services they provide in the library. A library's site should be conceived as another branch of the library. Its construction should be given as much attention and resources as if one were building a new physical branch. This planning should consider its layout, "interior" design, staffing, the what and how of services offered, ongoing funding, future "renovations," and so forth. These must all be integrated somehow in the planning and maintenance of a Web site. All of this I would consider worthy of extensive attention in a professional curriculum and research.
Diane Nahl
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI 96822
Voice: (808) 956-5809
Fax: (808) 956-5835
Web design is really an interface design issue and no one ever suggested that computer scientists, or those with CS degrees who design interfaces, should have graphic design backgrounds. Maybe they should since interface design in this stone age of automation is in its infancy, though ubiquitous. Now everyone can be an interface designer on the Web and librarians are participating heavily in this activity. Interface design, as taught from traditional sources like Ben Shneiderman's textbook, is a principled process including user input and usability testing. However, in industry this principled process is often neglected, omitted, and ignored.
Now librarians are into it on the Web sites they design for users, but are they using interface design principles and are these sufficient if followed? Probably not, on both counts. Some LIS programs do have such courses, but Paul's last comment about keeping the number of links to a minimum is important because research with novices and the many anecdotes we see here and on other discussion lists about this show that there is a great resistance to clicking. The best approach is to test designs systematically and regularly instead of relying on a good sense of design. One size does not fit all, but by testing we can determine which alterations and configurations lead to the fewest errors and increase success for the most people. This testing principle is important for LIS education.
Paul Doty
Electronic Services Librarian
Owen D. Young Library
St. Lawrence University
pdot@ccmaillink.stlawu.edu
I am very appreciative of the responses to my first posting on librarians and graphic design. I think the responses have formed a useful cross representation of opinion on the place and scope of graphic design in library education. I think that Diane Nahl raised an excellent point asserting the place of testing designs systematically in constructing web pages, but I can't help think that "relying on a good sense of design" is the best sense to start off. Yes, I think people with CS degrees who design interfaces should have training in graphic design. Along this line I was struck by Andrew Bonamici's point about offering access to design courses as a part of library education. I am also tempted to wonder whether even an introduction to graphic design will help empower librarians as they work and negotiate with interface designers.
You may join the discussion and look over the list of past and future topics.
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