| People acquire information from many sources other than libraries. For example, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon .com sell and distribute books, videos, and CDs and compete for the time and attention of our library’s customers. Barnes & Noble also provides children’s programming and Internet-related classes for families. These competitors for our library’s customers can afford to spend an enormous amount of money creating in-depth, user-friendly Web sites that customers access on a daily basis. Their Web sites are often state-of-the-art, with phenomenal graphics and interactivity that help attract and maintain new clientele. In addition, these competitors often have money and resources to do in-depth usability studies to find out if customers are easily navigating their Web sites and finding information effectively.
Although the main purpose of these competitors’Web sites is to ultimately sell products and services, many of today’s library customers are used to slick advertising, beautiful graphics, and very little text.Most libraries do not have enough money or resources to contract with consultants or companies to create extensive and exciting Web sites.However, all libraries can make sure that their library interfaces are easy to navigate, are understandable, and have instructions that make all customers—those who come into the library and those who do not—as self-sufficient as possible. |
