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Finding Aids Navigation



Hello List --  Another lurker with a question.....

We're looking long and hard at the structure of our electronic finding
aids.  Our FAs are not EAD at this time.  Yet we're re-vamping the "front
matter" or "cover page" as we begin to make more of our guides available
online, and have stumbled upon an interesting question of how much
navigational information to provide from the FA itself.

For example, including a link to the department's home page would be
good.  Obviously to the e-mail address for reference questions.  But what
other items do repositories link to the front pages of their online
FAs?  Do you link FAQ's?  Do you link to copyright statements?  Do you link
to online forms?   What is more, how do you create these links?  Do you use
textual links?  Do you have a navagational toolbar across the top?  Do you
use frames? I'd be interested in hearing from repositories in how you
improve access in the design of your online FAs.  Direction to websites
with examples is welcome.

And from anyone interested in discussing it, this opens up an entire set of
issues here about how users actually get to us:  that is, how do users find
out about our online finding aids and what happens when they get there.  Do
they do a Google search, drop into the finding aid itself and find
themselves stranded when they can't get to the repository to figure out how
to use the collection?  Or do they more often find the repository, and work
their way down from there?

All of this really does come down to the question of how we see our FAs --
are they paper documents mounted to the web, or are they documents that are
primarily digital, and have a paper counterpart?  I think that  perception
is shifting, but I wonder how quickly.  If anyone knows of some research on
this, let me know what articles are out there....

Thanks in advance for your collective knowledge.  I may lurk, but when I
want good and varied answers, I always seek out my colleagues on the list.

Regards,
Amy Cooper


Amy Cooper
Special Collections Librarian
University of Iowa Libraries
Special Collections Department
100 Main Library
Iowa City, IA  52242-1420

Phone: 319-335-6433


E-mail: amy-l-cooper@uiowa.edu
URL:            http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/

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