New Library website

Mobile-friendly Library website has launched, with new navigation and a cleaner, less cluttered design.

University library

With the help of 1,500 staff and students, we’ve created a responsive Library website with improved navigation and usability that can be used on any device, desktop, tablet or mobile. We’ve kept the guidance and support across the site the same, but we reviewed and improved all the content to be up-to-date, relevant and concise.

Let us know what you think of the new site

What’s changed?

The major changes to the site are:

  • More prominence given to the Library search as the most frequent task
  • Clearer opening hours and library locations information
  • “Essentials” links provide quicker routes to key tasks for staff and students from the homepage, eg making items on reading list available for students; open access and research data management services, suggest a purchase
  • A new Referencing section bringing together advice on citing and referencing for different types of material with Leeds Harvard and Numeric styles
  • Study and research support is brought together for a full view of the library support for learning and research, with sub-sections for Skills@Library (academic skills) and Researcher@Library (research support)
  • Revamped Special Collections pages, with a new Research spotlights section containing in-depth commentary on key items and collections, and an improved digital image viewer
  • New combined Galleries webpages for both the Treasures of the Brotherton and The Stanley & Audrey Burton galleries
  • New Highlights galleries showcasing the beautiful and rare on display and in our Special Collections.

The Library search, classic catalogue and account systems remain the same, and you’ll find a more succinct subject databases page with searchable features in the new site.

We will continue to tweak design and content over the next few months to try to make the site as good as it can be, in response to the feedback we receive.

Watch the video tour of the new website so you can see where your favourite webpages have gone:

Minerva links and bookmarks

Bookmarked links into the library website, or created links from Minerva may not be working anymore; please check and replace any links with the new ones. The majority of links will redirect to the new page, but otherwise you will get a ‘page not found’ message. We will keep redirections in place for at least six months to give time for changes.

Why make a new website?

We built a new site because the content management system we used was at the end of its life. It needed a lot of maintenance and was at a stage where it posed a risk to our services. We wanted to make the site suitable to use on different screen sizes and devices, as our analytics show a growing use of tablets and phones to access library services. The site was also looking dated and not in line with other University websites.

How was the site created?

There have been over 1,500 contributions from students and staff through website surveys, card sorts, tree testing and observational testing. We've listened, considered and built the site around them as best we can.

In October 2016, we ran a web survey asking for your opinions on the existing site. We ran more user research and testing on the navigation structure of the site. The results of this testing produced the new website headings and the groups of content beneath them.

Library and IT staff worked together to design and build the different parts of the new site. We looked at every page and reviewed and edited the content to be as clear as possible.

In November, we ran 39 individual testing sessions with staff and students on the new site. This gave us valuable insights into how the new site works for different types of user and tasks. We're using the information gathered to make some design and content changes. Some changes have already happened, and some are in the pipeline.

The last stage was to open the site up in a beta phase to a wider audience, to get a last set of feedback. We will continue to use this to make the site as good as we can.

Help

Try the improved ‘Search Library site’ feature from the magnifying glass at the top right if you can’t find what you’re looking for, or contact the Library for any enquiries.

Let us know what you think of the new site by completing our Library website feedback form.

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