As a librarian, I developed my first Web pages in early 1993. I was involved in the development of the earliest library Web sites and I can say for certain that most of today´s library Web pages just don´t work well for today´s users.

Librarians need to more clearly understand the issues that their users face in using electronic information. Some libraries do a lot of usability studies when developing a new library site design. However, too many of those usability studies are done along the same paradigms that libraries have used for the past ten years when developing Web sites.

The concept of a library having a home page with sub pages that go to an ‘about the library’ page, to an e-resources page, and to subject guides needs to be re-examined. The library home page is not sacred. A new paradigm for presenting library resources is needed, despite the fact that such a change would annoy some faculty. (But, really, is there any way not to annoy some of the faculty all of the time?).

One question I´ve wondered about is whether every library in the world needs to continually re-develop the same (or nearly the same) subject guide over and over.

Knemeyer says, “The individual site is not the most important thing. To the corporations that fund and maintain them they are, but users don’t care about your site.”

News flash to librarians: students don´t care about the library´s web site.

Knemeyer says that people use the Web to learn, feel, connect, and trade. When students do use the library´s web site, they use it to learn. When faculty use the library´s web site, they use it to learn. That´s all. To help someone learn is the only reason for the library´s web site. The library´s web site is not a tool for fundraising, it´s a tool for learning.

A particular problem facing libraries in their web site development is that they feel they must cater to two different demographics: students and faculty.

Knemeyer calls for the development of more Web-powered desktop applications and less Web applications. Perhaps, I´m not sure, though I have often wondered about the dominance of the browser. But who wants to keep track of running a lot of different applications on their desktop? I much prefer to use Bloglines rather than a stand-alone RSS aggregator, just as I prefer to use a Web-based email client rather than a self-contained client that offers more functionality. Likewise, I only open iTunes when charging my iPod, though I admit that iTunes is a nifty application for downloading music and I do like the way that it presents Web-based information about different bands and singers but since my mini iPod is almost full I´m not using those cool features of iTunes very much.

Of course, for a library environment, supporting the installation and maintenance of thousands of Web-powered desktop applications could be a nightmare. However, such an application would also successfully shatter the concept of the home page.