On behalf of Bill Helling, Brad Weaver, Laura Vogler, Mark Siegel, and myself, I would like to welcome you to the new Library Web Site.  All of us have put in some strong, concentrated work in December 2005 and January 2006 to migrate our current web site into a more stable environment that has been integrated with the campus web site.  Special thanks goes to Mark and Brad for their extensive role in advising, collaborating, and implementing this site with us. 

You will notice that the organization of our site appears quite similar to what we have done in the past.  You will also notice that we have started to introduce new features, such as the Library Catalog Quick Search in the top right corner of most pages. 

We will continue to renew our web presence as we seek to develop a student-centered set of web resources.  Over these ten years, I have relied on the vision of the Library Staff, especially staff members Laura Vogler and Bill Helling, the Information Technology staff led by Brad Weaver, and the dedication of the students who have helped plan, evaluate, and implement our home page. 

Jeff Beck,
Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian and Webmaster of the Lilly Library website

To see how far we have progressed since our first site in 1996, check out these images of our earlier home pages.  (Note that links from these pages will not work!)

During the summer of 2001, a team of several individuals provided strong contributions.  Students Joe Kolker and Peter Robinson examined a number of library pages from colleges in PALNI and the GLCA .  Discussions of their explorations led us to conclude that a model library website should include the following features:

• graphical access to more layers of the website up front with less clicking
• reorganization of the current content to streamline use of the site
• greater use of the words that students use when conducting research
• consolidation of design elements
• common links on every page (Wabash College, WebMail, Library Catalog, Request an Interlibrary Loan, and Library Home)

Using these criteria, Garry Bohm, Wabash College Digital Media Center, designed and implemented the interactive Flash front-end to the site.  Garry deserves high praise both for his ability to translate our needs and our expectations into a tangible form and his persistence in resolving the bugs in our new site.  Along with Joe Kolker and Peter Robinson, I converted our previous pages into a common template using DreamWeaver.