The Library of Congress : Closing doors behind visitors

One-way roads to information restrict research.

The Site

The Library of Congress’ website reinforces its claims to be the largest library in the world as well as the US’s oldest federal cultural institution. Its home page has links to Resources index pages for each of six categories of site user: Kids/Families, Librarians, Publishers, Researchers, Teachers and Visitors.

These index pages in turn lead to further specific information. However, once users leave an index page a return link is rarely provided, nor is there a ‘Resources’ link or other universal navigation bar. Partial breadcrumb trails are usually provided but these function only locally. There are also several different looks and configurations across the different parts of the library site.

The Takeaway

The Library of Congress site is a portal for its collections and services, and as such has much in common with large corporate sites. Initially it does a good job directing visitors on the right ‘journey’, but after that it is as if doors are forever closing behind you. So, you can make linear progression deeper and deeper into the site in pursuit of an information thread but are too often left without the conventional navigational aids of menu bars and/or a journey trail. This makes cross- and back-referencing, two staples of research or browsing to which websites are particularly suited, difficult if not at times impossible.

The problem seems to lie in a combination of two things: a librarian mindset that wants to send you to a particular piece of information on a particular shelf. And the lack of a common platform or template across the various departments, which adds to the sense of disorientation as journeys can cross through several such territories. Some elements of universal navigation going deeper into the site would help open up this great resource much more, as would, in their absence, the selective use of secondary windows to allow quick reference back to, for example, index pages.

First published on 04 July, 2006