The Princeton University Library is a major resource in the eastern zone of the USA. Its eminence is undeniably great; but its home page does not give that impression. It is not easy to find out about the university from this home page. It was expected that any institutional home page would give a direct link to introduce its own parent body! Nevertheless, by surfing on the main university pages one finds the reference “Princeton University: A Profile 1998‐99, About Princeton University”. This is, in fact, a historic note as well and gives a brief note about the history and development of the university. Yet, one fails to find the history of the library. As a historian, this reviewer’s first interest is in the growth and development of the institution; and the page fails in this regard. Growth of the institution is vital in two different ways, first ‐ show the direction of growth and second to highlight the future trends.
All that one finds on this historically significant and academically vital resource, in the “Princeton Profile 1998‐99”, is : “Princeton’s Library system consists of ...”
The main page menu of the Princeton University Library has the following topics/ themes for browsing:
place a hold or request a recall;
request a book from an Annex;
catalogs, supplementary catalog, others;
databases and reference tools ‐ by subject, by title or keyword;
collections and departments ‐ by name, Firestone, branches;
digital collections ‐ journals, texts, projects;
at the library ‐ services, hours, access, instruction, staff, friends;
what’s new;
contact the library;
university home page;
search the Net;
search this site.
An attempt to use the catalog via telnet does not call for any user identification or password. This is a very good feature of a user‐friendly library. This is one benchmark to assess its utility and the home page has proved its utility. A click at the catalog leads to the telnet connection. In this way, it follows the fourth law of modern librarianship, as stated by Dr S.R. Ranganathan: “Save the time of the user” (restated in the Weberian style, “Save the time of the Surfer”.
HTML design
The page probably uses a doctype that is non‐standard. The site would load faster with a “width” attribute on lines no. 17, and no. 21. And, on the whole, to speed up the site, there is a need to optimize images.
There are a few errors:
Vlink error: on line 12, character 62;
Alink error: on line 12, character 77.
Errors are also on line no. 36, 43, 47, etc. dealing with a variety of tags, such as td, hspace, height, border, font, colspan, etc.
Some of these errors may affect browsing by causing bad or uneven displays.
Keywords have neither meta description nor meta keyword tags which get the attention of search tools. These tags could be something like: <Meta Name = “description” content=” Princeton University Library is a rich resource in the state of New Jersey, USA. Its access to catalog and online search facility is via telnet”> and <Meta Name=”Keywords” content=“Princeton University library, Princeton Library, University Library, Princeton Information Resources, Electronic reference service, Electronic Reference form, Friends of the Library, Hours, Instruction, Photo copy services, Reserves, Staff, Inter‐library Loan, Services, Library catalog, Library hours, Electronic card catalog, Online catalog, Supplementary catalog, Access to the Library, Princeton University Chemistry Library, Princeton University Biology Library, Help in finding library materials, Special collections, Campus Library map, Marquand Library, Princeton University Archives, Digital Map & Geospatial Information (GIS) Center, Fine Hall Library, Firestone Library, Princeton Seminary Library, Mudd Manuscript Library, Scheide Music Library, Jones Hall Library, Princeton Video Library, Woodrow Wilson School Library, Fine Annex (Annex B), Astrophysics Library, Population Research Library, Engineering Library, Psychology Library, Architecture Library, University home page”>
Spelling
The pointers, on the first page, contain a few spelling errors. An instance is “by title or keyword” which is entered in html form as “by title of keyword”; subject is subect. Spell check and proof reading should be performed for all hidden and visible text. Spelling errors that occur on the html source code should be carefully checked, as these are visited by the search engines.
The main page lacks any help or user assistance field. Whereas the other supplementary page, Princeton University Biology library, has a detailed “Help in finding library materials”. The “Help in finding library materials” of the Biology Library concentrates on two areas: general information and specific problems.
Nevertheless, this home page has a valuable resource of information; and it does move towards facilitating easy access to resources located in Princeton University Library. It also provides links to other useful resources.
