Searching for the library: University home page design and missing links

Genre analysis is used to explain the placement of links to the library on more than one hundred college and university home pages. Despite the lack o f established standards, university home page design falls into common patt erns, indicating genre development. However, a number of university home pa ges do not provide a direct link to the library Web pages and thus disrupt user expectations. On those sites, the Web designers provide of her access to the library Web pages either through redundancy or by classifying the li brary with other services. Omitting an active link to the library does not serve design principles, users, or universities well.