New additions to database links and lists

Database subset links have been added to the databases links and lists in the Generic Content Boxes guide.

• SpringerLink - Humanities, Social Sciences and Law   This link takes you to the Humanities, Social Sciences and Law subset of the SpringerLink journals
• Taylor and Francis Online - Social Science     Will take you to the Social Sciences subset of the Taylor and Francis journals. Disciplines covered include: Anthropology, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Gender Studies, Sociology and Social Policy.

If you want other subsets added do so or ask a staff member with write access to the Generic contact boxes guide.

Information foraging: Do our links explicitly describe content?

I've been thinking about how we use the Description and More information fields in our Lists & Links content boxes and this quote from one of Alan's favourite people, Jakob Nielsen, confirmed my preference for having some brief descriptive text for each link:

"The most obvious design lesson from information scent is to ensure that links and category descriptions explicitly describe what users will find at the destination. Faced with several navigation options, it's best if users can clearly identify the trail to the prey and see that other trails are devoid of anything edible."

It's particularly important when the link text is not informative, or in some cases is misleading, eg, ScienceDirect would appear to only be useful for the discipline of science, so please use these fields to guide your students to key content.

"First, convince users that the site is worthy of their attention. As I described above, this means having good information and making it easy to find.
Second, once they arrive, make it easy for users to find even more good stuff so that they stay rather than go elsewhere. An entire movement was devoted to the idea of sticky sites and extended visits."

If you're interested in the analogy of wild animals gathering food to analyze how humans collect information online then you'll find the complete article by Jakob Nielsen at Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster
- Information Scent: Predicting a Path's Success
- Diet Selection: What to Eat
- Patch Leaving: When to Hunt Elsewhere
- Informavore Navigation Behavior
- Learn More