About Our New Look

Last semester, in an effort to improve its Web site, the Library began evaluating the current design. We have conducted focus groups and usability studies and interviewed Library staff. We've learned a lot about what types of improvement are necessary to make the site more useful and are in the process of developing a new site to implement those improvements. We hope to unveil the new site by the fall semester of 2002.

However, based on your input, we realized there was much we could do to make the site more useful in the interim. As a result, we have come up with the design you loaded today when you visited http://www.lib.unc.edu.

Our goal was two-fold: to flatten the hierarchy by making more links available from the front page and to employ more user-friendly language by creating mouse-over explanations of what you'll find if you follow those links. Only the homepage has been changed. Once you click on a link, you'll be taken to familiar looking page with the information you are used to finding.

For your convenience, the changes made to the site are outlined below:

1. The Quick Links have been removed from this page only since all the links have been added under the appropriate heading.
2. The most used links have been divided up under the appropriate new category as follows: Resources, Services, Information, Help, have replaced Online Catalogs, Resources, Library Information, Ask a Librarian, Services, Documenting the American South (DAS). In order to reduce the number of clicks necessary to get to key resources and services, items that were formerly displayed in mouse-over buttons and which were found in subsequent pages are now displayed under the new headings and linked to directly from the homepage.
3. If you want to get to a resource you are accustomed to finding from a link off the old design, click on "more…" under one of the new categories to follow a link back to the page formerly linked to from the old homepage.
4. In an effort to provide more timely information on news items within the University Libraries, "In the Spotlight" has been changed to "News and Events." These items will be updated more frequently and will provide more timely information on activities and events in the Library.
5. We hope that you find the interim design easy and helpful to use. If you have questions or comments about the interim design, please email The Library Web Team at webteam@www.lib.unc.edu.

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