A Report on Website Review

Question: Write an evaluation of the Gannon Library Website (library.gannon.edu)? Answer: Evaluation of Gannon Library Website Authority and Accuracy: The Gannon Library website author is an educational institution as depicted in the domain (.edu) of the website name (library.gannon.edu). The author being the educational institution is an authentic one and has adequate recognition. The information that is provided in the website is highly reliable as the educational institution of Gannon has high reputation and it is one of the renowned institutions of the United States. So, it can be inferred that the information provided in the website is most reliable. The authenticity of the author of the website is that the educational institution has been maintaining consistent recognition in the nation and also across the globe. Purpose and Content: The website has Gannon library provides various information such as the library timings, the steps to access personal library account, library catalogue, various useful information about distance education for specific students, and information about each of the library staffs. The website provides information about the various available library resources that are worth informing the website audiences(Wong, Liu and Bennamoun, 2011). The website also provides essential information like contact numbers, addresses, and email ids. This enables audiences to contact appropriate place to gather important information about the library operations. The Gannon library website has resource options such as summon for searching all resources at once, library catalog, databases such as journal articles, reference sources, and statistical data, journal list, library guides, and research consultation. Audience: The specific audiences of the website are students in particular. These students may be that of elementary, high schools, graduate students, and all college-going students. Other audiences are all those individuals who seek for library resources, researchers, and scholars. The website aims at serving useful purposes to the audiences and gives them all required information. Design, organization ease of use: The website has been designed and built in a clear format. The presentation of the website is quite distinct and sequential for any user to access the information. All headings and important topics are highlighted and presented in a structured manner. This sequential representation of the website makes the use and access of information from the website convenient for the audiences. The cover page of the website looks increasingly distinct and organized with sub-headings and topics depicted in bold style in a sequential manner. Not too many information is provided at the cover page to keep it simple and serene. This imparts considerable convenience to the users and audiences. Resources: The Gannon library website has resource options such as summon for searching all resources at once, library catalog, databases such as journal articles, reference sources, and statistical data, journal list, library guides, and research consultation. The website gives appropriate steps to the audiences to connect to library databases as well as electronic journals from off-campus. The steps that are mentioned are very simple and easy to be followed by a layman (Ruppel, 2009). Some of the Gannon resources are my.gannon.edu which provides audiences access to all announcements as well as information about the University, along with single site access such as GUxpress to provide the users with access to academic forms, academic profile, registration, course information, financial information, academic calendar, financial aids, and student information links. Another resource is Angel that generates students with accessibility to the learning management system of the Gannon University. Usefulness: The website of Gannon Library is quite relevant for easy accessibility and use for audiences. The website information is highly useful for the users to conduct a sequential research and acquiring of information. The web page is highly identifiable with systematic organization of topics and related information that may be of optimum use to the users and mentioned audiences. The website provides information about the various available library resources that are worth informing the website audiences. The website also provides essential information like contact numbers, addresses, and email ids (Wong, Liu and Bennamoun, 2011). The presentation of the website is quite distinct and sequential for any user to access the information. All headings and important topics are highlighted and presented in a structured manner. This sequential representation of the website makes the use and access of information from the website convenient for the audiences. The website gives appropriate steps to th e audiences to connect to library databases as well as electronic journals from off-campus. The steps that are mentioned are very simple and easy to be followed by a layman. References Ruppel, M. (2009). Sources: User-Centred Library Websites: Usability Evaluation Methods.Reference User Services Quarterly, 48(3), pp.318-319. Wong, W., Liu, W. and Bennamoun, M. (2011). Constructing specialised corpora through analysing domain representativeness of websites.Lang Resources Evaluation, 45(2), pp.209-241.