Transwiki:Developing a library websites

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Template:Wikify Developing a LIBRARY WEBSITE: A DISSCUSION

contents 1 INTRODUCTION 2 WEBSITE: its Definitation 3 LIBRARY WEBSITE: NEED AND PURPOSE 4. USERS OF LIBRARY WEBSITE 5. LIBRARY WEBSITE: PROBLEM IN DEVELOPING 6. PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING A LIBRARY WEBSITE 7.STEPS IN THE CREATION OF LIBRARY WEBSITE

[edit] Introduction

Internet is bringing sweeping changes in most of our daily activities. It is offering access to news, banking services, business opportunities, mails, educational facilities and technology online at our desktops, laptops, and mobile phones. This has changed the overall ways and means, mode and methods of information dissemination. Here the only mantra is how fast the information can be sent to the end users. Like other fields, in the field of library and information science too it has made a great impact. It has changed the overall concept of libraries, role of librarians and has shown the library professionals how the information can be disseminated to their clientele at minimum cost, effort and time. With the fast growth and easy accessibility to internet, libraries either now or in the near future have to develop their own homepages to meet the wide information requirements of their clientele.

2 WEBSITE: its Definition

A web page is an electronic document, written in computer language called HTML, which can be viewed in the computer screen by using the Internet. A website, Web site or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of Web pages - that is, HTML/XHTML documents accessible generally via HTTP on the Internet; all publicly accessible websites in existence comprise the World Wide Web. The pages of a website will be accessed from a common root URL, the homepage, and usually reside on the same physical server. The homepage may be the only or the first page of a website, or may act as a guide to various carefully planned sections of a large professionally designed site.

The technical definition of a website is that it is a distinct location on the Internet, identified by an IP address that returns a response code of 200 and a webpage in response to an HTTP request for the root page. The website consists of all interrelated webpages residing at the IP address. The URLs of the pages organize them into a hierarchy, although the hyperlinks between them control how the reader perceives the overall structure and how the traffic flows between the different parts of the site.

Homepage or Home may refer to: the start page or main web page of a website, the website of a group or individual, the page that is displayed when you enter only a domain name as URL (e.g. http://domain.tld), the URL or local file that is automatically loaded when a web browser starts. To take the visitors to other pages, the home page carries hyperlinks, so that one can jump between them by clicking on a link.

Websites are written in, or dynamically converted to, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and are accessed using a software package called a web browser. Web pages can be viewed on computers or various portable devices (PDAs, cell phones, etc.) that have Internet-capable functionality and an available Internet connection.

Static websites can be created using text editors like Notepad, or WYSIWYG editors like Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Active Server Pages (ASP), Java Server Pages (JSP) and/or a host of other dynamic web-scripting languages can also be used to generate web pages. Static content may also be dynamically generated periodically or if certain conditions for regeneration occur, (cached) to avoid the performance loss of initiating the dynamic engine on a per-user or per-connection basis.

Dynamic HTML also provides for user interactivity and real-time element updating within web pages (ie - pages don't have to be loaded or reloaded to effect any changes), mainly using the DOM and JavaScript - support for which is built-in to most modern browsers.

A website also requires software known as an HTTP Server. Two very common examples include Apache, the most commonly used web server software used on the Internet (according to Netcraft statistics), and Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS). Often websites may include content that is pulled from one or more databases or using XML-based technologies such as RSS.

3 LIBRARY WEBSITE: NEED AND PURPOSE

The Library's website is built within the context of its hosting institution. It reflects the mission, objectives, and resources of the public library. “A library website is a virtual library service that should be no different than a fixed library facility, a clean well-lighted place filled with services and information for library users.” (Anderson: www.wiredlibrarian.com/htmlw/htmlfront.htm). The public library website "statement of purpose" should align with overall public library mission or philosophy. Many websites have their mission statements on an "about this site" or "background" page. The purpose of the public library's website mirrors a few of the Libraries' goals in the Strategic Plan (ie - learning, teaching, and scholarship). It emphasizes access and communication. Explore the statements below. These kinds of purpose statements can be found on many sites. One can use these to formulate his/her own statement of purpose.

3.1 Easy to understand: The visual or graphical information system of library website is more popular as compared to text based information system.

3.2 Shifting of the environment: Today’s generation heavily uses online shopping, banking and news reading, amongst other activities. They also prefer to transfer those experiences to other actions in their lives. This increases their expectation about the functionality of a library website and how one interacts with it. The new generation user may only be happy when they will be able to read from the computer screen.

3.3 Multiple function of same information: In the case of library websites which utilise hypertext, it is possible to structure and organize the same digital information in a variety of ways which serve multiple functions.

3.4 Information explosion: A library website is expected to be able to handle the problem of information explosion in some way. It will be able to handle and manage large amounts of digital content by simply providing links - without actually procuring the document.

3.5 Information retrieval: By using a library website, one will be able to retrieve specific information - for example, a particular image, photo, a definition and so on. Supplementary access to the library's resources, such as the online catalog and databases, its collections, services, and staff may also be available.

3.6 Distance learning: Provide a "library without walls" that can be accessed 24/7, anytime, anywhere, for example - from home, office or other places which are convenient to the user.

3.7 To procure online publication: More and more information is going to be published over internet. A library website needs to be able to procure the online publication, such as electronic book, electronic journal and to provide links to important sources of information.

3.8 Facilitate the public library's mission of learning and teaching: improve information literacy, promote life-long learning, reading and literacy.

3.9 Communications channel: Through the library website, the user can have access to reference assistance at any time and from anywhere.

3.10 Online help: Encourages positive, productive experiences - both in and out of the library - for children and young adults. Supports the sharing of student work and curriculum needs of teachers and research scholars.

3.11 Wide range of services: Provide access to community information with a wide range of other services, such as downloading of catalog records, reading and so forth.

3.12 Psychological need: Library users are changing and technology continues to evolve. Education is adapting to these changes and libraries need to anticipate the effect of these changes -----------------------------------------------------

4. USERS OF LIBRARY WEBSITE The primary audiences of the public library website are the general public - for example, children, students, teachers, researchers, faculty and staff of the public library. These people expect the website to help them facilitate their learning, teaching, and scholarships. The following tiers of users can be enumerated and ranked as the website's primary audiences with the understanding that services and collections created for lesser tiered audiences should not detract from the functionality and usability of services and collections of higher tiered audiences. Below is a list of possible audiences for public library websites.

I). Students, teachers, scholars, administrators and board members of local schools. II). Parents and local community members. III). Students, T=teachers, A=administrators and board members from other areas. IV). People from outside the community or locality. V). Staff of the particular library. VI). People who arrive at library website site through a search for an unrelated topic. VII). Users from all over the world, in other words - everybody else.

For more resources one can consult Richland County Public Library (http://www.richland.lib.sc/spanish/index.htm).

5. LIBRARY WEBSITE: PROBLEMS IN DEVELOPMENT

In the Internet era, for a library to be recognized and its services to be made available globally, the creation of library website is indispensable. However, the huge costs involved in developing the necessary infrastructure such as owning and maintaining the web servers, high bandwidth internet connection, the required software, and the necessary technical knowledge has made it difficult for many libraries - especially in developing countries like India - to take steps in this direction. However, lack of funds or certain infrastructure should not be constraints for owning and designing a library website. With even minimal knowledge of HTML, librarians can develop homepages utilizing the services of web space providers like Geocities, Tripod, Xoom etc. The main problems in developing a library website are:

I) Lack of technically qualified manpower/librarian. II) Lack of motivation of library staff. III) Traditional view of the librarian. IV) Lack of leadership role of the librarian. V) Lack of common platform. VI) Lack of funding.

6. PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING A LIBRARY WEBSITE: The following Guiding Principles are suggested for the development of any library's website in order to provide excellent service to all users. These guidelines should be reviewed annually as capabilities are enhanced.

SELF DESCRIBING: The public library website should have enough information for completing a specific task. It should direct where to start, and move within the site's information architecture - in particular with relatiion to interpreting various categories and their labels.

CORRECTLY USE CAMPUS AND LIBRARY INDENTITY STANDARDS: Correct usage of names, logos and seals must be followed.

INFORMED BY ACADEMIC PROGRAMS AND RESEARCH AGENDAS: Wherever appropriate, the Library website design should be informed by the academic programs and research agendas of the campus.

PROVIDE TARGETED AND TIMELY RESPONSE: User interfaces should be designed to get users started in the direction most likely to result in success for their current need. The system should provide a response time that is acceptable to the user.

BASED ON USER-CENTERED DESIGN: Design will be focused on how the user will use the system. This includes user testing and usability studies at the appropriate stages of the design process.

FACILITATE COMMENT AND FEEDBACK: Users should be able to easily report problems they encounter with interfaces and search engines, databases and applications. Feedback forms should be readily available.

PROVIDE ACCESS ON and OFF-CAMPUS: Off-campus access should be as easy as on-campus access for authorized users.

CONCISE: Library web pages should be in a brief and concise format.

CONTINUOUSLY EVALUTED AND UPDATED: To keep the website looking fresh and up-to-date it constantly needs to be reviewed as new capabilities are added.

INTEGRATE VARIOUS INFORMATION SOURCES: Wherever appropriate, library web pages should provide, to each level of user, a single interface that transparently integrates separate resources (for example, the local catalog, the union catalog, the CDL directory, and perhaps information on / access to Library services).

MAINTAIN USER TASK CONTEXT: The user interface should keep users informed about where they are in the session and, as much as possible, help them keep their place in the web-based user interfaces.

MAINTAIN SETTING VISIBILITY: Make objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another.

LIMIT THE NUMBER OF PLACES USER HAS TO GO TO SEARCH: Make access to the multitude of electronic resources easy and simple for the user to find. ABILITY TO SEARCH THE ENTIRE LIBRARY WEBSITE: (http://www.google.com/services).

PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR MULTIPLE BROWSERS: Access needs to allow for a number of different browsers and versions.

HAVE ABILITY TO CHECK LINKS TO KEEP BROKEN LINKS TO A MINIMUM: Reduce the number of broken links by having them checked automatically periodically.

JARGON-FREE: The interface should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than using jargon, acronyms, and system-oriented terms. The names of library services and systems or their explanatory labels should reflect what they do.

ORGANIZED, SIMPLE, AND CLEAN AND SHOW CONSISTENT IDENTIFICATION, NAVIGATION, TERMINOLOGY AND CONTENT: To assist users in assessing the information interface should provide useful, consistent navigational tools (eg - navigation bars) that represent the most-used navigational features. Standard language and terminology should be used throughout the website to refer to the same activity or item.

BROWSING OPTION: A hierarchical, supplemental, or contextual browsing approach should be provided to user (http:// 42explore.com).

INDEXING: Provide indexing of the entire website (http://www.boxesandarrow.com/archives/what_is a_control_vocabulary.php) (http://www.boxesandarrow.com/archives/Creating_a_ Controlled _Vocabulary .php)

PROVIDE TIPS FOR IMPROVING SEARCH RESULTS: Assist users to refine their searches.

PROVIDE CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS ON USE: Help screens should be easy to find and search, be focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out and be brief.

REFER USER TO HUMAN ASSISTANCE: The site should be able to refer a user, who needs more help, to a person.

COMPLY WITH ALL CAMPUS AND UCOP POLICIES: The library website should comply with all policies and guidelines. Copyright standards should be adhered to.

COMPLY WITH ALL STATE AND FEDERAL REGULATIONS: The website should comply with the American Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 requirements that information technology is accessible to people with disabilities.

COMPLY WITH THE WEB content ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES: The website should comply with the web content accessibility guideline as outlined by the W3C http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/full-checklist.html .

DATA SECURITY AND INTEGRITY: All those intending to place information on the server should first seek approval from the authority.

STEPS IN THE CREATION OF LIBRARY WEBSITE: The creation of homepage/ website and its subsequent hosting involves certain major steps such as signing with the webspace provider, creating contents, uploading the site by using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and so on. Each one of these has to be dealt with carefully to make the website live and interesting.

PLANNING: Why spend the time and effort to create a website that isn't used? All planning must start by exploring the users' information needs. Quality web resources begin with a user investigation that incorporates a wide range of tools to discover the information needs of the target audience. While the website entry page may be designed for a number of audiences, you'll want to focus selections to particular audiences. For example, the section for children should be written at a low reading level and contain developmentally-appropriate materials. A section designed for the elderly might contain larger font sizes to accommodate the visual needs of seniors.

SIGNING WITH THE FREE WEBSPACE PROVIDERS: A whole industry has been created around placing the website. Good placement can mean major increases in visitor traffic, leading to increased site visibility and users. A good number of service providers available on the Internet offer free webspace for developing homepages. The amount of space provided by them varies from company to company. Most of these services are ad-based - in other words, they are sponsored and will therefore have sponsor advertisements on the site. The advertisement may be a banner or a pop-up. It is needless to say that the service providers earn revenue from these advertisements. Therefore, while seeking free service, it becomes mandatory to accept certain conditions posed by the service providers. These ads really will not be distractions and make no much difference as these appear on top of the page or at a corner. There are some services which provide webspace without advertising being featured. However, this should not be the sole criterion for selecting service providers. Main consideration should be the speed, i.e., how fast the service provider's site gets loaded on to the browser and how fast will be the subsequent retrieval. The following table gives a comparative statement of some of the major service providers. Table-1 Website Free Space Per account (in MB) Advertisement www.1freespace.com 50 YES www.50megs.com 50 YES www.freeservers.com 20 YES www.geocities.com 15 YES www.netcolony.com 35 YES Free.prohosting.com 50 NO www.tripod.com 11 YES www.webjump.com 25 YES

A detailed comparative study of various service providers can be had from the website http://www.freewebspace.net, which eases the selection process.

On signing the agreement with the service provider, one can get user name and a password of one's choice. This user name later becomes the web address of a site on the internet. It is also known as URL (Uniform/Universal Resource Locator). An URL may look like: http://www.geocities.com/library/index.htm.

CONTENTS ANALYSIS FOR THE WEBSITE:

After signing with the service provider, one has to create contents for library's homepage. However, people who are familiar with HTML can even keep the homepage ready before signing. There are certain tools, which can be had from the service providers if one is not acquainted with HTML. According to Eric Anderson, web developers should keep three simple ideas in mind: (1) keep it current, (2) develop as much local content as possible, and (3) make it interactive for your users.

          The library website should reflect the mission and the needs of  users. The content of the website is not very much different from the content of traditional, physical libraries, and therefore it contains tools to access bibliographic information, access to digital library services and collections, instructions for pedagogy, and last but not least, access to people who can help with all these processes -- librarians. The website is not designed to be comprehensive list of resources. Instead, it is designed to highlight the most significant resources and provide starting points for learning and research. The content of the website is very much like the content of traditional library pathfinders.

It should be noted the things articulated in this dissertation were not conceived of arbitrarily. Analysis of existing strategic planning documents, extensive focus group interviews, surveys, usability tests, and many discussions with as many people as possible have all played a significant part in the creation of this document's content and so all these are should be consider before determine the content of a public library website. To start with, one can include the following information: 1. Brief introduction about library 2. Working hours 3. Details about Collection 4. List of Current journals 5. Journal Holdings list (Back volumes) 6. Monthly additions 7. Staff 8. Services 9. Databases available etc. 10. Links to other sites (with a disclaimer)


IMPLEMENTATION To create a homepage with above-mentioned contents, one needs to have an HTML editor. These editors are popularly called as WYSIWYG editors. These editors basically hide HTML codes and make creation of HTML pages a simple process just like word processing documents. Netscape composer or Front Page Express can also be used to create a HTML page. These come along with Netscape and Internet Explorer respectively. The HTML pages can also be created using MS-WORD. People who are familiar with HTML are recommended to use text editors such Norton Editor, EDIT or NOTEPAD and then insert the HTML commands to get the desired output. Whenever possible, the data transferred from the Web server to the browser will be in the form of XHTML documents. By adhering to the XHTML standards the Libraries will reap all the benefits of XML, namely, separation of presentation from content, compatibility with future Web standards, and the ability to reformat content for different purposes and reading devices (http://www.useit.comalertbox/20031222.html)(http://www.webstyleguide.com/site/index.html). In the implementation phase the librarian or website designer can use a builder to create a web site from scratch for getting all necessary help. There are several types of website builders i.e. Online Website Builders, Offline Website Builder Programs etc. Programs like Dreamweaver or FrontPage of offline category are very popular among designers. But they are costly and require a learning curve.

A). Technical Standards: Standards keep the Internet functioning efficiently. There are standards related to hardware, software, graphics, email, and almost everything related to the Internet. For information one can scan the following references (Adkisson:http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/examining the role of de_facto_standards on the Web.php); (http://www.wigglebits.com/standards.html) (http://www.webstandards.org/). B). How to pick a memorable website name and file name: When possible, the file names should be very short, and should represent the library and are of memorable value. File names should be less than 8 characters plus a file extension. The file extension can be .htm or .html. It doesn't matter. However it is better to maintain consistency. File names should be all lowercase letters. If you want to separate words use a dash - or underscore _. Your home page should be called index.html or index.htm. C). Folders/Directories: Create a folder for your website. Keep all files in this folder. Create subdirectories or additional folders for major areas of your website. The core page for each of these sections should be named index.html. D). Use HTML and CSS to build web pages: HTML is the language used to build websites. You can do amazing things with so little of it. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can create and control the style of the page (colors, sizes, spacing) but also the layout (the position of text, navigation, graphics). E). How much screen should your website use: Some websites that don't use up all of the available space. Building liquid designs fixes this problem of by making the layout fit the screen. F). What background colors work best? The rule of thumb is to build a website with dark text on light colored background or white background. Some argue that the background should not be completely white, but just slightly darker. Often, the best choice for a background has proved to be a single color. G). How to and build good navigation: All web pages should point back to the home page and any other important "first level" pages. It is better to put links where people expect to see them. Build a horizontal menu bar with 7 or 8 options maximum. Put it at the top of the screen. Create a left hand side menu to list options at deeper levels. If you have more than three levels, you might consider hiding some of the options from the level above. Listing only local options related to the page people are on. Always keep the main menu visible. Avoid drop down menus. Top-down and bottom-up are the two main approaches to building information architectures. In many cases these two approaches are interwoven and occur simultaneously. For more information on navigation one can consult the following references

http://connection.smsd.orgveterans/introduction.htm http://eduscapes.com/arch/arch3d1.html#1#1 http://eduscapes.com/arch/tltc.pdf http://library.lhs.usd497.org/bookreviews.htm http://library.lhs.usd497.org/teacherpicks.htm http://www.eduscapes.com/arch/navigation.html) http://www.eduscapes.com/arch/sitenav.html) http://www.inspiration.com/freetrial/index.cfm http://www.skokie.lib.il.us/s_programs/ http://www.webstyleguide.com/interface/navigate.html) http://www.worthingtonmemory.org

H) Browsing: The library website must provide browse using a hierarchical, supplemental, or contexual approach. I) How to make the text easier to read: The type of fonts that work best on websites are sans serif. These are simplified type letters created to be very readable at small sizes and on most screens. To make the text attractive to read the librarian should use different sizes and colors for headings, subheadings and paragraphs proves and give plenty of space in between. People should be given provision for increase font size for easier reading. Nearly all browsers have an option to increase text size but only if the web page is designed to allow it. J). Why serve information in bite sized chunks? Breaking up the information in smaller paragraphs can greatly cut the time people need to scan the content so rather than using endless paragraphs of information, librarian may consider chunking information into small pieces, Separate paragraphs with spaces and use indentation to show levels of importance. Or, use tables to organize major areas. K). Sound: There are many ways to incorporate sound into a page. But the librarian should be sure the sounds attract rather than distract from the content. L). What graphics to use: The librarian should accept the fact that words is the core reason people visit their website. Graphics should be used only when they are essential to communicate something that is not possible to with words alone. Avoid using graphics that have no relation to the surrounding text. M). GIF Animation: The librarian should choose animations that contribute to the theme. For example, he/she might use a rotating globe on the geography page. (http://www.frsd.k12.nj.us/barleylibrary/lib/5fingrtst.htm) N). What should stand out on each page: The librarian should create a list of important features to go on every page. He/She should decide which the most important element is. If the librarian want visitors to look at the special announcement, then it is better to place them in the home page itself. O). How to use links on your website? People learned early on that links were the blue, underlined phrases you can click on. Visited links were purple. All other text was black. So if possible follow the same line, again the Links should always stand out and be easily distinguished from regular text. P). Why put load speed above anything else: The library website designer can cut load times to a minimum by Taking out any graphic that doesn't add to the user experience, By removing font tags and by using CSS instead to style your text etc. Q).How to make websites popular with search engines: Most people use search engines to find the information they want on the web. If the website can get top rankings for keywords that match the content then there is a guaranteed to see a spike in visitor numbers. One way to achive this is to follow the guidelines of W3C. 2.9.5. VERIFICATION OF THE WEBSITE: After creating the pages, one has to verify the contents and design before finally putting these on the net. This can be done by loading the page(s) on the browser locally. It is necessary to check the results both on Netscape and Internet Explorer and on some other browser as pages may look differently on different browsers and even on different versions of the same browser.


SUBMISSION OF SITE TO SEARCH ENGINES: To make the site known to all, it is necessary to submit the site to search engines. This will increase the hits to the site. The submission can be done either automatically or manually. To get best results, it is suggested that submission be done manually to each one of the search engines. Automatic submission can be done by using the services of following sites: http://uswebsites.com/submit http://www.netcreations.com/postmaster http://addme.com Manual submission can be done individually by going to the respective sites of the search engines. The search engines index sites under various categories such as education, business, sports etc. To submit a site one has to click on the option 'Submit your site or Add URL', which in turn asks for URL, category, description and keywords. The category could be 'Education' and then 'Libraries' and all these information need to be typed manually. Some search engines do accept URL without asking for categories. Depending upon the keywords and description given, search engines themselves will put the submitted site under the appropriate category. Important search engines available on the net are: http://www.google.com http://www.yahoo.com http://www.altavista.com http://www.lycos.com http://www.infoseek.com http://www.khoj.com http://www.indianindex.com http://www.hotbot.com Each search engine has its own rules for accepting the sites for indexing. All search engines may not accept sites of all categories. Therefore, one has to do some homework for knowing the policy and specificity. Search engines will take some time to index the submitted site. Hence, it may please be noted that results will not be immediate. For further reading and help on HTML, webpage design, graphics etc, a list of internet resources has been given in APPENDIX-II

MANAGEMENT: Management involves a wide range of functions related to website development and can be group into policies, promotion, and staff development.

A).Policies: Policies are essential for a smooth running of public library website. Rather than building all new policies one can use existing collection development policy. The web resources that librarian choose for inclusion in the library website should meet the guidelines established in the collection development policy. The policies should include collection development policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Licensing Policy, Content Disclaimer etc. B).Promotion: The librarian will need a plan for website promotion.Like any good promotion, he/she will need a strategy to establish client base, then keep them coming back. The librarian might start with posters, bookmarks, demonstrations, and public service announcements to advertise the library website resources. Next, general people should make aware that new things are being posted all the time. Posting student projects, user comments, and other local materials are a good way to generate interest. C). Staff Involvement: Everyone on the library staff should be familiar with the content and use of the website. Although not everyone will be developing and posting pages themselves, everyone should be encouraged to play a role in the success of the materials. From content development to checking links, there is many ways staff members can help. A truly interactive website may require a number of ongoing responsibilities such as checking email, monitoring discussion groups, or checking online registrations or scheduling. In order for staff to play an active role, the librarian may need to set up training sessions. He/she can do the same with student workers.

MAINTENANCE: The librarian will need a mechanism in place to handle the ongoing needs of library website including new content, revisions and link rot. There’s nothing more frustrating for users than link rot. This occurs when URLs become outdated or change. The librarian can explore each of the following ways to deal with link rot and other similar problem.

EVALUATION OF THE LIBRARY WEBSITE

The library WebPages should be modified and expanded, rename and gives a prominent place on the home page based upon its evaluation by the user. A particular department within the public library must assign the jobs of continuous evaluation of the Public Library website with a whole lot of help from user community, faculty, staff, and Libraries employees of the public library. For example, user community, faculty, and staff will be regularly enlisted for the purpose of focus group interviews and usability studies. According to E.A.Dupis for the evaluation of the library homepage “call it what they’ll understand and put it where they’ll find it” (Cox, Suellen and Housewright, Elizabeth: 2001, Pp.3)

Libraries must have good understanding of its audience before it can be re-created,. 

CONCLUSION

Users don't notice when a website works well for them because they're too busy taking in the information they came for. They do notice, however, when the pages take too long to load, the text is hard to read, that top right image is blinking all the time and they have no idea where to go next. In the above description an effort has only been made to describe how a basic library homepage can be created at minimum cost without investing on webservers and related softwares. This may not be an exhaustive article where- in one may find every thing on web page development under one roof. Future development of homepage can be done by using other programming languages and software such as JAVA, PERL, WWWISIS, ISEARCH etc.

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