Question
I am researching digital libraries for a class at SCSU. I plan on making a digital library and want to know what resources you could reccommend to a beginner to ensure the following:
1. open access
2. user-oriented design
3. well-working links
4. a design for all types of users.
Many thanks,
Mary Shah
Graduate Student
Department of Library and Information Sciences
Southern Connecticut State University
Answer
Dear Mary,<BR><BR>Thank you for sending your question to AskNSDL. <BR><BR>The National Science Digital Library, <A href=http://nsdl.org">http://nsdl.org</A>, provides an access point to many quality resources in science and technology. When I searched the NSDL for the phrase, "web site design," I retrieved many useful results.<BR><BR>BT Exact Technologies: Web Site Design, <A href=http://more.btexact.com/projects/webdesign.htm">http://more.btexact.com/projects/webdesign.htm</A><BR>Description: BTexact Technologies maintains this site to help people with building good, usable web sites. "Although it is geared toward commercial Web site design, the material is also suitable for personal use. Some topics addressed include site navigation, page design, graphics and multimedia, and user input. Each section contains clear descriptions of techniques, styles, and other factors that need to be considered to make a successful site. The sections are arranged in a natural progression, but the table of contents makes it easy for users to skip sections with which they feel comfortable."<BR><BR>Web Style Guide, 2nd edition, <A href=http://www.webstyleguide.com/">http://www.webstyleguide.com/</A><BR>Description: This is the online version of the book by Lou Rosenfeld. This is a great guide for creating usable web pages. The table of contents allows you to link to specific sections, such as Interface Design .<BR><BR>Evaluating Web Based Resources - A Practical Perspective, <A href=http://www.thelearningsite.net/cyberlibrarian/elibraries/eval.html">http://www.thelearningsite.net/cyberlibrarian/elibraries/eval.html</A><BR>Description: This page presents a concise set of principles for evaluating web pages, and, thus, for creating them, too.<BR><BR>Another good resource that I have used is WebMonkey, <A href=http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/">http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/</A>. You can choose your level of expertise - beginner, builders or masters - and select resources from the library in areas, such as authoring and design.<BR><BR>The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) web site contains a wealth of information. Browse the "Site Index" for recommendations on "Accessibility."<BR><BR>As far as checking links, a Google search, <A href=http://www.google.com">http://www.google.com</A>, for "link checker" or "link validator" returns many results. Here is one of them:<BR><BR>Site Owner.com, <A href=http://www.siteowner.com/badlinks.cfm">http://www.siteowner.com/badlinks.cfm</A>. Here you can enter the URL of the webpage and it will perform a check for bad links.<BR><BR>I hope this information has been helpful to you and I wish you success in your project!<BR><BR>Sincerely,<BR>Joyce W.<BR>AskNSDL Administrator<BR>
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