Web Analysis of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscript Library

WEB ANALYSIS OF THE DAVID M. RUBENSTEIN RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY

Web Analysis of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Books & Manuscript Library

David M. Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscript Library is located in William R. Perkins library within Duke University campus. The library has more than five thousand nine hundred and ninety-one archival collections. Among them, seven hundred and seventy-nine have a finding aid that enables researchers, students and other interested parties to access the collections online. The library segmented the website into dissimilar sections to make searching easy. These sections include a catalogue search, a finding search aid, a digital collection search, a collection area and a section to conduct research. The searching options provide and demonstrate useful searching practices and information (Cox & Archives Students, 2007, P. 32).

How does the institution present its holdings, and how useful is this presentation for a researcher

For any website to be useful and successful to their users, it is imperative for it to rely on the basics of searching. This is so because the main aim of a researcher is to find relevant information. That is why search engine websites depends on the basics of searching to support the user in locating the required information. For one to appreciate David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library web analysis, it is vital to understand that Duke University combined the search for the university archives and the Rubenstein Library. The main library web page consist of dissimilar resources such as search box, which has two options. The first option enhances search through the catalog while the second one is through the finding aid. It also has a collecting areas box, which provides links to different archives such as the documentary art and human right archive located within Rubenstein Library.

The page has a link to a digital collection, which directs the user to collections accessible through the website. Below the collecting areas, there is a box for conducting research. The conducting research box is extremely useful because it enables first time users to access website materials. The conducting research box has a finding material link, which directs the user to dissimilar links with explanations to enhance their understanding on the material they are searching. The option also offers short definitions of what the work will entail. These include brief depiction of the finding aids, a direction to the manuscript collections and search guides (Duke University Libraries 2011).

What information is included in the finding aid? How does this meet the researcher need?

In the modern society, the reference services are always changing for the archive repositories making it imperative for the finding aid and other search strategies to change. This enabled Rubenstein library to create a search engine so that it can direct users to locate specific finding aid. For example, when selecting finding aid search, the user either can place contents into the text box or can decide to browse all finding aids. Using the general search in finding aid is not effective when researching on an extreme vague topic. This is so because it produces many results that do not relate with the intended topic. Personalization of the search can be through narrowing down using the category section. The user can also search using full text, subject, title and author. The most effective way of locating a topic is selecting more about the finding aid. This directs the user to the main finding aid page where they can conduct their research alphabetically. They can also browse all finding aids, search through the university archives or seek for additional help. The ability to search using the finding aids offers a great service to users who are interested in searching specific information but do not know where to start (Duke University Libraries 2011).

Rubenstein Library finding aids are easy to read and understand. This is because they offer the researcher with priorities to choose on how to view the aids either in full context or by using sections. This is imperative because it gives the user the powers of downloading as well as printing the finding aid using dissimilar formats such as PDF or XML. The finding aid used by Rubenstein has seven sections including the descriptive summary, administrative information, bibliographical note, collection overview, subject headings, related materials and the contents of the collections. This paper evaluates the finding aid called inventory of the bill and it contains nineteen items. The finding aid is essential to researchers because it offers related materials to the information, which enables the researcher to know where to search next. After analyzing Rubenstein Library finding aid, it will be helpful for the library to consider setting up more user-oriented feeling within the finding aid (Duke University Libraries 2011).

Does the website clearly explain the methods of contacting the institution for additional information about the collection, even if a researcher does not come to the website through the "front" page?

It is essential for the library to offer an area from which the user can contact them while accessing the online material. On the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library website, the contact part is on the far right of the website, below the listed hours. The section offers the postal address, email, phone number and fax. Furthermore, the section provides information concerning the administrative office, and ways of locating information regarding the staff members. This is important because conducted research indicates that in modern society, researchers sent their questions using fax and telephone.

How might a user find these tools? Are these finding aids in an institutional database? On the other hand, are they findable on the open web?

In this analysis, conduction of the research was by using both Google and Bing search. Placing photographs of Richard S. Buswell in the search engine gives out the location of dissimilar finding aids for the library. For example, in Google search, results were 636000 items and the appearances showed three links. On the other side, placing the same information in the Bing search required some modifications to the question and the results for appearance was zero. The results obtained after using Google and Bing search implies that outside users can access the finding aids of the library by using general search engines (Duke University Libraries 2011).