On Tue, 25 Apr 1995, James Henderson wrote:
 
>      In brief, researchers want clear guides to collections,
>      supplementary information about the institution and its
>      mission,  and  access information: rules  for  copying;
>      mail,  phone,  e-mail information.  They are  far  less
>      interested  in "cute" sample images (the  olde  map  or
>      photo)   or   sample  text  of  selected   collections.
>      Parochial  items  such as organizational  structure  or
>      exhibits  and  upcoming events are clearly  the  lowest
>      priorities among those listed.
 
Yes but most of my customers are university staff and students who ask
lots of the same questions about the university's history and architecture.
They are not "researchers" in the traditional sense.  For that reason I
included both historical information about Washington University
(including a rather elaborate self-guided campus tour) and the
more research-oriented information (hours, contact information, texts of
finding aids, etc.) in our Web site.  We also put in a search engine
which allows keyword access to the entire Page, including text to the
finding aids -- we did this with researchers in mind.
 
Fun and scholarly don't have to be mutually exclusive.  Check out our site!
http://library.wustl.edu/~spec/archives/
 
Carole Prietto                  phone: (314) 935-5444
Olin Library, Box 1061            fax: (314) 935-4045
Washington University        Internet: [log in to unmask]
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899