Fall 2004 -  Volume 10 -  Number 2

 
 

The UTA Libraries Online: A New Year, a New Web Site

A Scholarly Communication Crisis

Evolution of Technological Infrastructure in the UTA Libraries

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The UTA Libraries Online: A New Year, a New Web Site

by Sarah Jones

 

 

UTA Libraries home page October 4, 2004.

  Oct. 4, 2004

So, there you are, at home on a Saturday afternoon . . . Maybe you’re writing a paper for a class, or want to catch up on reading in your field of research, or you’ve just discovered some books that will be overdue tomorrow. . . You need the library!

But … home is a 40 minute drive from the UTA campus, or maybe even a 4 hour flight from Arlington. Or maybe home is only 4 blocks away, but with pouring down rain or the kids playing in the next room, there’s no way you’re going out.

The UTA Libraries believe that – no matter where you are – when you need the library, it should be there for you. And so, the idea of the UTA Libraries Online was born: the idea of a web site that would provide you with all the information and services you need to succeed in your endeavors at UTA.

 

UTA home page from June 6, 1997.

  June 6, 1997

That was nearly 10 years ago, and now, with the latest version of the UTA Libraries Online, officially launched on October 4, 2004, this idea has come much closer to fruition.

Why Redesign?

While the UTA Libraries first started experimenting with creating a web presence for itself in 1995, it was during the 1996-1997 school year that the its web site became well-established with information about the campus libraries, in-building services, and links to other web sites.

By Spring of 1999, the site had evolved to incorporate a more sophisticated structure to accompany the site’s fuller range of information and services. Along with this came a fresher visual design, reflecting trends in broader arena of web site design and development.

Redesign Project Timeline

Preliminary research (2002-2003)

Inventory the web site to understand the information we were providing

Gather comments and suggestions from UTA students, faculty, and staff to find out what people expected from a library web site

Analyze the information and services the library provides to find things that were missing from the library site

Choose among hardware and software solutions to form the platform for the new site

Choose among web delivery technologies and standards to find the most appropriate and most extensible structure for the site’s information

Site architecture and design (2003)

Develop prototypes for site navigation and content organization

Develop visual/artistic designs for the new site

Get feedback from the UTA community to find which structure and visual design worked best

Building and testing the new site (2004)

Review and revise all existing web site content

Prepare new content for information and services not previously provided on the site

Transfer of all content (approximately 2000 web pages from 3 internet domains) to the new platform, refreshing it with new HTML markup and reorganizing it into approximately 1500 new files

Preview the site for the UTA community and make changes based on feedback

The previous major redesign of the site happened during the 1999-2000 school year, when the UTA Libraries Online matured into the site that the current UTA community will recognize. This version, with its broad range of ejournals and databases plus a growing menu of online library services, would stand as the Libraries’ online presence for over 4 years.

But, as we know, 4 years is a long time, especially in the context of the internet. Technologies and standards for web site delivery changed. With the growth of UTA’s distance education programs and web-enhanced campus courses, more library services needed to become available online. The Libraries’ online information resources also expanded dramatically, to over 31,000 journals and over 250 databases accessible from the Libraries’ web site. In addition, expectations have changed for how a high-quality, sophisticated web site can service its customers.

To meet these changes in needs and expectations, and to be able to plan for future enhancements, it was clear that re-engineering the UTA Libraries Online would be necessary. To support this, the Libraries won funding from the Texas Infrastructure Fund (TIF) grant program for the 2001-2002 academic year. These funds provided support for the Libraries to purchase hardware and software solutions to form an entirely new web site platform – a platform with redundancy to minimize the chance of web site unavailability, with the capability of easy web content creation and revision, and, most importantly, with the ability to create a user-oriented, personalized experience for the UTA community.

The Redesign Process

 

UTA Libraries home page March 9, 1999.

   Mar. 9, 1999

The new UTA Libraries Online officially opened on October 4, 2004, but that is just the end of Phase I. Future enhancements for the site are already in development. We are implementing a content management system for library staff and others to easily create and update web pages. We also plan to provide customization capabilities so members of the UTA community can log in to the library web site with their campus NetID and choose the types of information and services that they are most interested in and that best serve their needs. And that’s just the beginning. Throughout the continuing site development process, it will be the suggestions from the UTA community that will guide the new information and services we provide online.

UTA Libraries home page Nov. 10, 2000.

  Nov. 10, 2000

Please visit and send us comments. The UTA Libraries Online exists to serve you. Visit us at http://library.uta.edu and send comments to libraryweb@uta.edu.