Academic Library Website developoment : a case study of Learning Resource Centre at Bennett University, India

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to establish the need for preliminary documentation regarding content strategy, design guidelines, and usability testing for creating an academic library website. This study showcases the Learning Resource Centre's (LRC) website at Bennett University (BU), which followed a systematic and efficient approach for the process. The first step was to create a content strategy adopted from Blakiston (2013), followed by W3C’s WCAG 2.1 guidelines for design and accessibility. Finally, Raward’s (2001) usability testing tool was implemented to check the usability index of the beta (version 1.0) version of the LRC-BU website. Implementing such strategy, guidelines, and standards at the earliest stage of website development helps save a lot of time for both the designer and the library administrators from repeated involvement in the website update process. Many studies have applied these guidelines and standards over the existing library websites highlighting their shortcomings and improvement needs. But this study implemented these strategies at the infancy stage of website development, providing a well-defined structure that enabled effortless creation, management, and updating the website data. The case study will act as a guiding tool for any academic library that needs to create a website from the initial level