Web Sites of Science-Engineering Libraries: An Analysis of Content and Design

The purpose of this project is to identify trends in the design and content of home pages for web sites of Science-Engineering Libraries. Forty-five web sites from universities in the USA and Canada are chosen and their design characteristics and hypertext links analyzed. In addition, full-text journals, Internet resources and access to e-journals through the online catalog are examined. Using the program Excel, data collected from each home page are tabulated. The most common elements are then incorporated into a model home page that visually shows the predominant design characteristics and hypertext links on this type of web site. The results show that in general the current design of home pages for Science- Engineering Libraries contain many of the elements found in home pages of academic libraries. Among the characteristics found are images, screen lengths, colors, number and types of links, and link headings. The content of these web sites is also analyzed and summarized.