LofT Committees - 2001

University of Virginia Library
Library Portal Planning Team

1. Background

"Portal is a new term, generally synonymous with gateway, for a World Wide Web site that is [] a major starting site for users when they get connected to the Web or that users tend to visit as an anchor site. There are general portals and specialized or niche portals. Some major general portals include Yahoo, Excite, Netscape, Lycos, CNET, Microsoft Network, and America Online's AOL.COM. Examples of niche portals include Garden.com (for gardeners), Fool.com (for investors), and SearchNT.com (for Windows NT administrators).

Typical services offered by portal sites include a directory of Web sites, a facility to search for other sites, news, weather information, e-mail, stock quotes, phone and map information, and sometimes a community forum. Excite is among the first portals to offer users the ability to create a site that is personalized for individual interests."
(from whatis.com)

In terms relevant to the University Library, a portal can be viewed as the collective web presence and conceived of as a integrated collection of online collections and services targeted toward faculty, students and staff (including library staff), including possible new services like creation of personal research pages (such as the "MyLibrary" project), online research forums, reference chat services, online bill payment, connection to 24 hour reference service provision and others.

2. Charge

The Library Portal Planning Team will issue recommendations for modification, improvement, and transformation of the current Library web presence into a Library Portal.

The team will:

• Evaluate the current web presence with attention to navigability, internal consistency (branding), and overall information architecture.
• Review user feedback on the recently implemented home page.
• Identify current integration problems with Library resources, such as between bibliographic databases and full-text providers, and between the Library's on-line catalog and some digital resources.
• Select a peer group of research libraries and undertake web site comparisons.
• Generate a list of internal and external services to be included in the portal.
• Prepare a portal development and implementation plan that addresses technical, educational (staff and user), workflow, resource, and staffing implications.

3. Leader

Patrick Yott

4. Members

• Todd Burks
• Chris Hoebeke
• Christina Deane
• Elizabeth Margutti
• Frank Wilmot
• Fred O'Bryant
• Heather Packard
• Jean Cooper
• Suzanne Bombard
• Melinda Baumann
• Sue Munson
• Scott Silet
• Gary Barrow
• Esther Onega
• Heather Moore