NCSU Libraries Website Wins Award from American Library Association
January 6, 2011
Media Contact:
dwhiscoe
, NCSU Libraries, (919) 513-3425
A little more than four months after it officially went public, the newly redesigned website for the North Carolina State University Libraries
has been honored by the library world's premier professional organization as a cutting edge service that can and should be replicated by libraries across the nation. The Office of Information Technology Policy of the American Library Association presents its Cutting Edge Technology Service Award
annually to libraries that are serving their communities with novel and innovative methods. The NCSU Libraries was the only academic library in the country to be honored with a 2011 award.
In 2010, the NCSU Libraries thoroughly rethought its website always keeping in mind two key principles: 1) we would militantly craft the new site based on the user-centered design practices that have long been a rigorous practice of the best commercial sites; and 2) we would take very seriously the fact that today's students and faculty live comfortably in a blended world where the distinction between physical space and virtual space is fluid.
The result has been a substantial increase in the use of an already busy site, the unleashing of the potential of the site's distinctive search engine, enabling discovery and use of our strong research collections, and a solid increase in use of the portfolio of digital library services at the university. Since launch at the beginning of the fall 2010 semester, average searches per day are up 56% and average clicks have climbed 79% (compared to fall 2009).
The NCSU Libraries long ago committed to being a technology incubator both for NC State and for our profession in general, says Susan K. Nutter, vice provost and director of the NCSU Libraries. The website is our digital front door to all we have to offer, a critical part of how we serve today's mobile, dispersed, and very engaged students and researchers. I'm so pleased that our web team has received an honor for work that was so expertly conceived and so well implemented.
Last year the NCSU Libraries won a 2010 ALA Cutting Edge Service Award for its Library Course Tools project. This service automates the creation of an individual web guide on how to approach research tasks for every one of the over 6000 courses taught at NC State University.