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RBC Info Commons Website. What we need to know before we start? by Mukul Seth. Competitive Intelligence. What do other Information Commons websites cover? Which topics are the most popular? How are they incorporated into the site?. IC websites looked at. Content Categories.
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RBC Info Commons Website What we need to know before we start? by Mukul Seth
Competitive Intelligence • What do other Information Commons websites cover? • Which topics are the most popular? • How are they incorporated into the site?
Content Categories • What content is on the websites? • Which of these categories are relevant to our Information Commons? • How important our they to us?
Instructions/Learning Aids • Online tutorials on printing, photocopying, scanning, using a USB drive… • Help with applications such as Microsoft Office, Quest, myWaterloo, UWAce, and the TRELLIS catalogue • Usually linked to the How to.. Pages of the library website see Dalhousie University
Hardware/Software • How many workstations (sit-down/stand-up) there are and their specifications • Are there any special multimedia workstations? • What software packages they have installed see U. Calgary, U. Arizona
What’s New • What current events are taking place in the library, the university, maybe the country • Information about new software, and software updates • How to get involved in the library? see U. Dalhousie, U. Toronto
Virtual Tour • Pictures of the facilities, linked from an interactive floor map of the library • Or a few 360 degree views of the IC areas and other areas of the library (would need users to have quick time installed) see U. Iowa, Purdue
Feedback • Enables the users to provide us with comments and criticism • What they like, and what they don’t like • This information is very useful to us because it helps us get an understanding of what works well and what doesn’t see U. Calgary, U. Dalhousie
Support • Chat online, Email, etc • This is the support that is available online • The library already has a page that has these • We can link directly to that page to minimize redundancy see U. Georgia, U. Waterloo
Links toolbar • The main library links should be made available • The IC links should remain consistent on all IC pages • The more relevant links should stand out see U. Calgary, U. Iowa
How is the IC site linked? • What is the IC website linked as • e.g. “Computing in the Library” • Which category does it fall under • e.g. “Services”, “Resources”, etc… • How prominent is the link? • Does it appear at the top? • Does it appear at the bottom?
How is the IC site linked? • Most universities just use “Information Commons”, or “Learning Commons” • It is listed under different categories for just about every university • Some of the common ones are “Services”, or “Quick Links” • There was no correlation in the placement of the IC link from the main page
Common pages • Some pages such as Policies, Floor maps, Support will be common between the IC pages and the Library website • Instead of creating all new pages with the exact same information, we should create links to those pages
Homepage? • Is the Information Commons page the default homepage on the workstations at other libraries? • Should we consider making it the homepage on the workstations in our Information Commons?
More Info You can go to my website to see the data collected for each university. • What is the IC at other universities? • Who are we designing the IC site for? The URL is http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/~mseth