Dal Libraries Launches Refreshed, User-Focused Website

June 27, 2016 Marlo MacKay 2 Comments

On July 5, watch for the refreshed version of the libraries.dal.ca

The refreshed website features improved navigation, a new front page layout including a tab called “My Library Account,” and a tabbed search box. We’re especially proud of the new hours widget on the front page, allowing you to see at a glance the hours of all our locations at once.

The changes to libraries.dal.ca have been made in response to user testing and focus groups that started in the summer of 2015. Usability testing and consulting continued into the spring of 2016. To all students, faculty, and staff who took part in our research and provided valuable feedback, thank you!

Libraries.dal.ca is an integral part of our services. It is our sixth library, providing access to research information for students, researchers, and faculty wherever they are. Our website is the most-used website at Dal after dal.ca. Despite its high usage of 1,415,612 unique sessions and 2,890,032 page views in the past year, we knew libraries.dal.ca needed improvements. Results revealed from the LibQUAL+ survey told us that users of the website reported they sometimes had difficulty finding what they were looking for and used Google instead. We also wanted to eliminate confusing library jargon from our website.

We are looking forward to launch day and to serving you better online. We couldn’t have made these improvements without the Dal Libraries Web Committee, Dalhousie’s Web Team, and Creative Services.

Special thanks to the University of British Columbia for sharing the code they developed for the hours widget, and to Computer Science intern Zhaoxin Li for his work on modifying it for our needs. Many thanks to recent SIM graduates Emily Colford and Charlotte MacKeigan for their assistance with usability research, redesign/layout work, and more.

Transit Strike? We’ll Still Be Here For You

February 1, 2012 Tina Usmiani Leave a Comment

Like you, we’re all crossing our fingers that a strike can still be avoided. But the good news is that either way, libraries.dal.ca is your “fifth library” and it’s open 24/7 regardless of where you are. So if you do get stuck at home, we can still help you get a lot of your work done. Some useful features:

Live Help–chat with a librarian from our homepage

RefWorks–login to your account or create one

Advanced Search–Search for books, articles, databases and more

Writing & Style Guides–all the major ones link from this page

Document Delivery–fill out our online form or use Novanet Express

Archives and Special Collections Website

November 18, 2011 Tina Usmiani 1 Comment

Dalhousie University Archives and Special Collections (DUASC) has just updated its website. Links to finding aids, research guides, and a guide to the major collections are now right on the homepage.

The centrepiece of the new site is a slideshow carousel featuring images that link to some major collections or areas of interest: student life at Dal, the Oscar Wilde Collection, Nova Scotia Theatre Archives, the Music Collection, Labour Archives (one of the largest in Canada), the Canadian Historical Map and Print Collection, and the DUASC multimedia collections which include films, audio reels, tapes, photos and digital media.

Explore the DUASC website and let us know what you think!

Outdated Online Tutorials Removed

September 6, 2011 Tina Usmiani Leave a Comment

The Dalhousie Libraries have removed some outdated tutorials from our website. Faculty who use these tutorials in their class syllabi or require students to view them may want to update their course material so students are not referred to items that are no longer available. The specific tutorials removed include five in the Interactive Research Skills series:

Research Basics
Searching Novanet
Finding Journal Articles
Evaluating Resources
Researching Ethically (Plagiarism)

We have also deleted two tutorials related to the software Turnitin, which is no longer being renewed by the university:

Faculty Guide to using Turnitin with Blackboard
Student Guide to Submitting an Assignment to Turnitin

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please visit our Tutorials page for a complete listing of all the research help we offer!

Start Your Research Here!

November 4, 2010 Tina Usmiani 1 Comment

The Libraries’ new website is the one-stop spot for getting your research in gear. But we thought you might appreciate a quick tour to start you up.

This video will show you where to find the essential resources and services you’ll need, like RefWorks, Document Delivery, instructional videos and our writing and subject guides. It also explains how to search for books, articles and other materials most effectively. Start your research here!

More Than a Makeover: The New library.dal.ca

October 18, 2010 Tina Usmiani 1 Comment

This Wednesday the Dalhousie Libraries will be launching our new website as part of “Wave One” of Dal’s web revitalization project. We’ve used this timely opportunity to rethink the way we present ourselves and our information based on usability testing. Much more than a new look, our site is being streamlined and reconfigured to make it more user-friendly. Key features include:

a single search box with multiple drop-down options
a “Using the Library” tab to get you started
library Hours link front and centre
a central “carousel” highlighting our most popular resources and services
a Research tab with links to tools and new discipline-specific resource pages
a Writing & Style Guides tab
a more dynamic library news and events section

We hope you like what you see, but even more—we hope you find the new library site much easier to use than our old one. A website is always a work in progress. We’d really appreciate your feedback so please use that red feedback buttonat the bottom of the page to let us know what you think!

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