What’s in a name?
Written on January 17, 2008 by Michelle Misner
What is a collection? We know the answer to this question from a library perspective. Collections and digital collections have very specific meanings in a library. The Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science provides more details.
But, what does a “collection” mean to a user of a library website? Does it matter if the library owns the collection or not? How can we make it easy for our users to create their own collections of library items?
These questions came up as we are working on reconfiguring the Digital Collections page and reviewing the Digital Gallery Collection Guides. We noticed that the current Digital Collections page focuses on collections that have been digitized by the library and wasn’t a complete list of what the library offers in digital form.
With these questions in mind, we have several goals in revising the Digital Collections page:
- to include all the items that are available to users in complete form on the library site (in other words, not the metadata or catalog record, but the item itself)
- to categorize the collections by format (ex: text, image, audio/video)
- to include items that are leased or subscribed to by the library (such as ebooks and subscription databases)
- to collapse 3 links on the home page into one (Digital Collections, Digital Materials and Webcasts, Audio and Video)
- to provide context for the collections from library staff and library users
Here is a screenshot of what we have so far.
A few more tweaks, maybe some more discussion on these issues and then we can show off what we have. We’ll keep you posted!
Filed in: Collections, Content, Digital Gallery.
That sounds like a really good plan, I like the sound of it. Keep us updated as you progress.
I really like the redesign of the Digital Gallery. I was however unsure of what “Collections” meant in this context until I saw Michelle’s very pertinent post. Some users may think “Collections” represents Library divisions. In the Research Libraries we have the Theatre Collection, Art & Architecture Collection, Spencer Collection, Pforzheimer Collection, and more. Both the HSSL and LPA home pages have a prominent link to “Collections,” a listing of all the departments within the Center. On the Digital Gallery, these units are found under “Libraries.” So, perhaps simply renaming to “Digital Collections” would be clearer?