Need for The Gateway to Information
Rapidly advancing technology has increased the quantity of information available and changed many of the ways information is acessed. Libraries are responding to these changes by providing more efficient systems to help users cope with this phenomenon. The Ohio State University Libraries has developed The Gateway to Information to support the changing information needs of college students.
Contents
The Gateway provides access to over 1,200 annotated print, electronic, and Web resources, for over 60 subject areas. Resources have been selected and reviewed by Ohio State University librarians, and range from broad background information to more highly-specific materials. The Gateway also provides access to the University Libraries' holdings via Ohio State's computerized catalog OSCAR (Ohio State Catalog for Automated Retrieval), as well as holdings of 80 academis libraries in Ohio through OhioLINK, the state-wide catalog of Ohio research libraries' collections and numerous electrionic databases.
Licensed electronic resources available include:
- Academic Search Premier
- American Heritage Dictionary
- American Poetry Database
- Associations Unlimited
- Biography and Genealogy Master Index
- Biological and Agricultural Index
- BIOSIS Previews
- Book Review Digest
- Business Source Premier
- EconLit
- Encyclopedia Britannica Online
- Electronic Journal Center
- Essay and General Literature Index
- LexisNexis Academic
- A Matter of Fact
- MLA International Bibliography
- Newspaper Source
New titles can suggested by any users via an online form. All titles are reviewed by The Gateway staff and University librarians.
Searching The Gateway to Information
Recommended titles and description are organized by resource type: Background Information, Words, Articles, Books, Libraries and Reference Help, Organizations and Directories, People, Quick Facts and Statistics, Reviews and Opinions, and Other Web Sites. Users can choose to view all resources for a subject, or select specific resource types only. Users can also search alphabetically by title. Results can be printed through a printer-friendly format or e-mailed to another address.
Goals and Target Audience
The primary goal of the project is to assist undergraduates and those unfamiliar with The Ohio State University Libraries to improve their satisfaction and success using the resources of the University Libraries, OhioLINK, and the Internet. The Gateway helps users define their information need and then easily identify, locate, and select relevant print, online, and Web resources to meet those needs. The Gateway displays resources in a search strategy order, showing broad background materials first and more specific resources further down the list, to help users develop a research strategy and enable individuals become independent users of information. Users also have the ability to customize their search to retrieve only specific resource types and then be able to e-mail the search result list.
Creation of the Narrative and Technology
The original Macintosh Gateway to Information was offered to the Ohio State University campus in October 1989. This innovation program was funded by over $500,000 in grants from the U.S. Department of Education Title IID, FISPE, andthe William Randolph Hearst Foundation.
The Gateway was developed with the encouragement of the Dr. William Studer, Director of the University Libraries, and by many individuals, committees, and consultants under the overall leadership of Virginia Tiefel, Project Director and Head of User Education at The Ohio State University Libraries. Nancy O'Hanlon, Head of Reference in the Undergraduate Library, developed the layout design, pathways, and content, while John Salter, Senior Programmer for the project, created the programming using HyperCard, MitemView, PC Anywhere, and other new software to network CD-ROMs for access by multiple users, and also designed a common front end search and display screen for Wilson, SilverPlatter, the LCS online catalog, and all other online resources. Four consultants from outside the University and three on campus consultants gave expert advice throughout the entire project. Technology was coordinated by Susan Logan, Project Manager, from the Libraries' Automation Office.
In 1995, the Ofice of Library User Education worked with the Libraries' Automation Office to transfer The Gateways original HyperCard program into HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) programming. Nancy O'Hanlon again provided assistance with design, content, and functionality. The Gateway Development Committee and other University Libraries' personnel monitored the technology, gathered user suggestions, and tested new versions.
The current Gateway to Information in March 2005 was upgraded from static screens to a dynamic database based on PirateSource developed at East Carolina University (http://systems.lib.ecu.edu/piratesource/). Programming for the migration to this database format was by Andrew Wang from the Univeristy Libraries Information Technology Department, and Fred Roecker from the Libraries' Instruction Office.
Testing and Evaluation
The Gateway has been continuously tested since its creation. Prototype versions were reviewed by University Libraries' faculty, staff, and students. The public computer workstations featuring The Gateway had print and later online evaluation forms for users to comment on their experiences using the project. Thousands of suggestions were reviewed over the years to continually revise the project. Since 1996, The Gateway was used by all freshmen and transfer sophomores to complete two mandatory research assignments to identify and access core resources.
Future Plans
The ongoing goal of this project is to help researchers find and use relevant core tools regardless of format. To this end, The Gateway over the years has migrated from HyperCard to static HTML pages to Javascript, PHP, and a dynamic database backbone. Using the new Suggest a Resouce link, The Gateway developers will continue to add University Libraries' licensed databases, as well as quality print and Internet resources. As new technology is developed, the project will be modified to incorporate software and programming that will improve the user experience. The current version is managed by Fred Roecker, Head, Instruction Office, in the University Libraries.
