Web Communications and Collections Outreach to Faculty

Abstract

A library’s web site can provide a powerful forum for communicating with users about changes occurring in local collecting practices and their relationship to larger issues of scholarly communication. This survey of library web sites examines how information on collection changes and scholarly communication issues is presented. While a few institutions use their web sites to inform users and connect the local and the global, most present little or no information on these topics. When collections information is present, it usually appears either on dedicated collections pages or on faculty services pages. Typically collections pages focus on largely static information describing services and policies. Information on changes in collection building is uncommon. Scholarly communication information is even scarcer and is rarely linked to information on local collection development or management.