Patterns of Two-Year College Library Websites

Abstract

Trends in website design among libraries of two-year academic institutions have been under-studied. These libraries are a unique population because they have different goals and challenges than other types of academic libraries. Data were gathered from the library websites of 264 randomly-selected, two-year, nonprofit colleges in the United States. The data were then analyzed to assess the frequency of multiple basic web design elements. Some were common across the sample, such as database lists, and some were infrequent, such as social media integration. The data also showed some relationships between features, for example the presence of a database list tended to be a good indicator of whether a website would have course guides or subject-specific research guides.

Keywords:

• Two-year colleges
• community colleges
• academic libraries
• website design