About the SLU Libraries Web Site

The SLU Libraries maintain a web presence to provide access to bibliographic indexes, to ODYsseus WorldCat and other library catalogs, and to significant web finding tools. We use the web site to complete interlibrary loan transactions. We also use the web site to publish information about our facilities, staff, and special library events such as lectures. The web site will be home for digital collections and information on where the libraries fit in St. Lawrence University's community and history.

The SLU Libraries web site is for the St. Lawrence University community. We hope it is of use to people in North Country generally, but North Country Public Radio Online is geared much more to the general concerns of St. Lawrence County and the North Country.

There are a number of documents that outline the how's and why's of our web site. These include our Browser Authoring Standards, which outline our assumptions about technology; the Content Inventory which states what we consider "content; and the criteria for selecting web sites. The SLU Libraries' web site links to and links together a number of interfaces developed and maintained by different information vendors. SLU Libraries pages are completely functional across newer versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, and Opera. An exception to this is Canadian Foreign Relations Index, which functions only in Internet Explorer. Because we use CSS, older versions of Opera and Netscape (4 and below) will not display the pages suitably, and browser specific glitches are likely to show themselves as students and faculty use our web site to illuminate. We will work to expediently fix function and format problems as they arise. The pages are best viewed with a 1024 by 768 screen resolution, which is the SLU computer lab setting.

These pages were written to be XHTML compliant (at least we're trying). The primary authoring tool is Dreamweaver MX. All pages feature some degree of hand coding, and the the site is utilizing cascading style sheets which were "hand written." The following sites are good sources for information on CSS authoring: A List Apart, Glish.com, Blue Robot's Layout Reservoir, and Owen Brigg's Box Lessons. Much was gleaned from these sites, and many of their suggestions manifest here. Ultimate responsibility for the SLU Libraries' web site lies with Paul Doty, Electronic Services Librarian, and questions or concerns should be directed to him. Paul would like to thank Library Systems Technician Thomas Dildine for his expertise, advise, and unfailing good humor. Responsibility for the Science Library web site lies with the science librarian.

If you are interested, the History of the MIT Libraries Web Site is a useful collection of materials on web page design, redesign, and redesign again. The materials at MIT were often consulted during our own several redesigns.

Please feel free to send us comments on our web presence.

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