Western Illinois University Libraries
Archives & Special Collections
http://www.wiu.edu/library/units/archives/

What are the strengths of the collection, and how well does the site characterize the special nature of its holdings?

The focus of the Special Collections at Western Illinois University is documenting the cultural, economic, and natural heritage of west-central Illinois. Significant collections include the Center for Regional Authors; the Baxter-Snyder Center for Icarian Studies; the Center for Hancock County History including the Mormon Collection; publications of the Decker Press; a number of Civil War Manuscripts; collections related to naturalist Elton Fawkes, singer Burl Ives, historian Philip D. Jordan, and Congressman Thomas Railsback; and west-central Illinois regional materials including county and town histories, oral history tapes, diaries, letters, maps, photographs, and newspaper clippings. Materials from the WIU Special Collections are also featured in the digital projects Early Illinois Women and Illinois Alive.

The WIU Special Collections website characterizes the special nature of the materials in Special Collections by dedicating at least an entire webpage to each collection. Individual collection webpages include general information about the specific collection as well as highlights notable materials and groups of materials in those collections. For example, the webpage for the Baxter-Snyder Center for Icarian Studies begins with a brief overview of the collection as a whole and then describes in more detail important materials in the collection such as the Baxter-Cabet Letters and the Lillian Snyder Tape Collection. Some individual collections webpages also include links to additional information such as a link to more detailed information about the newspapers and periodicals in the Center for Hancock County History collection.

Is administrative information (hours of operation, names and duties of staff, policies, procedures, directions, etc.) easily accessible and complete?

Administrative information for the WIU Special Collections is located prominently on the homepage of the website. The information provided includes the physical location of the Special Collections in the WIU library, hours of operation, and general contact information for Special Collections including telephone number and email address as well as the names, titles, telephone numbers, and email addresses of the Special Collections staff and faculty. Contact information is also located at the bottom of all webpages throughout the website.

How easy is it to post reference questions and to find details of holdings?

Reference services are available through multiple points on the WIU Special Collections website. Through the contact information located at the bottom of all the webpages of the website, a Questions/Comments link directs patrons either to contact Special collections through email or telephone or to physically visit the library for further assistance. Patrons can also receive further information by calling the telephone number or contacting the email address provided in the Administrative Information section of the website homepage. Patrons could presumably also contact specific staff and faculty through the telephone numbers or email addresses provided in the same Administrative Information section. The general Ask a Librarian link for all WIU libraries at the top of every webpage allows users to contact the Library Reference Desk through various media including email, telephone, and instant messaging. However, reference services specifically for Special Collections are not explicitly available through the website. Posting reference questions is, therefore, simple and easy.

The only information available on the website for any of the WIU Special Collections holdings is the general narratives on each individual collections webpage. None of the holdings are linked to an online library catalog. Some materials are viewable via online digital projects such as Early Illinois Women and Illinois Alive.

Are all the collections described in equal detail?
Are finding aids linked to all of the collections described?

All of the collections in the WIU Special Collections are described in fairly equal detail. Each main collection is described on a separate webpage that contains general information about the specific collection as well as highlights about notable materials in those collections. All collections receive at least one webpage dedicated solely to detailed information about the materials in those collections. Some materials, however, receive additional information in the form of links to other webpages. For example, the Books section of the Center for Hancock County History webpage includes a concise paragraph about the general nature of the books in the collection. The Books section is additionally linked to another webpage that contains more detailed bibliographic information about the specific books in the Center for Hancock County History collection. Other sections, such as the Photographs section in the same collection, only include a paragraph of description of the materials in the collection.

Although the narrative descriptions of the materials in the WIU Special Collections is fairly comprehensive, the website does not provide any information about finding aids or links to finding aids for any of the materials in the collection. None of the holdings are linked to the WIU online library catalog either. Therefore, access to materials in the special collections is solely dependent on staff members.

Are there links to online exhibits?
If so, of what kind and quality?

The WIU Special Collections currently contributes materials from its collections to the online digital projects Early Illinois Women and Illinois Alive as well as the Western Illinois University Digital Image Collection. All three digital projects are accessible through the WIU Special Collections website. The WIU Digital Image Project is a fully catalogued and completely searchable by keyword database of historic images from the west-central Illinois region. Users can also browse the image collection in the order the images were added to the collection. Illinois Alive and Early Illinois Women are both joint digital projects primarily headed by the Alliance Library System. Both projects are again accessible through links on the WIU Special Collections website. Neither of the two websites is particularly technologically advanced but do, however, effectively provide users with the digital images and supplementary texts of the collections.

How easy is navigation within the site?

Navigation within the WIU Special Collections website is fairly straightforward and easy. The homepage presents an overview of the collection and contains a navigation bar with links for all the significant smaller collections within the larger special collections. Within the webpages for each of the individual collections, many of the subject headings contain links to more detailed information about specific materials or groups of materials. A link back to the homepage is present on each webpage as is a Questions/Comments link should the user experience difficulties or have other related questions. The same navigation bar to all the different collections on the homepage is available on almost all of the other collection webpages; the only exception is on the Baxter-Snyder Center for Icarian Studies webpage, which strangely only includes links to sections within the collection and not the full navigation bar. Overall, the WIU Special Collections website is easy to navigate.

How aesthetically pleasing is the site?

The aesthetics of the WIU Special Collections website are overall pleasing. The purple background and gold accents tie the website to other university webpages because the Western Illinois University school colors are purple and gold. Links within the text are highlighted in purple creating visibility of the hypertext. Other links change color under the mouse to help the user more easily know on which link he or she is clicking. Sections of the text are separated by spaces making the text easier to read. The text is also broken down into paragraphs, which also contributes to the readability of the text. Images contain links to larger formats, which is useful for users who want to more closely examine the images but limits the clutter on each webpage.

What improvements would you make to this site?

I first suggest, as an improvement to the WIU Special Collections website, providing additional holdings information for materials in the collection. I would specifically like to see item records in the online catalog. Although only special collections staff can physically access materials in the collection, providing access to item records in the online catalog would allow users to find similar or supplementary materials available in the circulating stacks through fields such as subject headings. For example, were the book The Presidents of the Church: Biographical Essays in the Center for Hancock County History collection linked to the online catalog, users would be able to find other materials on the same topic. Access to materials in both special and general collections would be improved by linking item descriptions to items records in the online library catalog.

My second suggestion to improve the website is to provide more detailed information about the images provided on some of the individual collections webpages. For example, the webpage for the Center for Hancock County History contains an image described only as a black and white photograph from the Mormon collection. The image can be enlarged but no additional information aside from the brief and generic description is available. Providing more detailed information about the images used on the website would be useful for users interested in further researching items in the collections as well as could entice other users to visit the special collections and investigate similar materials.