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Piping Up

SFU Library Feedback

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Library’s homepage

Q: Can there please be a link on the Library homepage with the most popular search databases? I’m always using certain ones (eg. SAGE journals or EBSCOhost) and it’s frustrating to have to find the link every time. For example, see this university’s library website. It has the list of databases and also has “quick links” on the right for popular choices. http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/databases/

A: Hi. We are also frustrated at times on the best way to present the thousands of databases and other electronic resources available from the SFU Library’s website. Apart from the large, and still growing, number of resources, determining the most popular ones can be problematic. Quite often, this can be a very discipline, or even course, specific consideration.

We do provide something similar to the Library website at Monash University at the subject or discipline level. For example, if you follow our “Journal articles & databases” link from the SFU Library’s home page, and select one of the choices under “Browse databases by subject area:” the resulting display usually shows the “Top Resources” in that discipline followed by “Other Resources. Here is an example for the subject area of Global Health:

http://cufts2.lib.sfu.ca/CRDB/BVAS/browse/facets/subject/636

Now I have to admit I’ve cheated a bit with the above example. Some of our subject areas have more Top Resources than Other Resources and the list can go on for several screens. Which is very frustrating and probably still doesn’t provide exactly what you would like to see.

We are continually looking at ways to improve the Library’s website and are currently investigating some new software products. They may provide a way for you to customize or personalize what you see on the Library’s website such as a list of “your” favourite databases. Which would be much better than the Library trying to identify the most popular databases for you or anyone else. So, please stay tuned.
___________________
G.W. Brian Owen
Associate Univ. Libn. Processing & Systems

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 1:45 pm. Tags: , ,
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