University Libraries

[UNT Libraries’ Website][]

• The UNT Libraries’ website has a brand new look in summer 2012! This new design aims to improve the user experience by putting UNT students, faculty, and staff needs front and center.
• Highlights include:
  • Improved search options and search box location;
  • Today’s hours displayed by building and improved locations display;
  • A collapsible “Find” tab throughout the site that will provide quick access to frequently used search options, features, and services;
  • Improved news and events display to help promote Libraries’ collections, happenings, and services;
  • Improved service-oriented and context-driven information architecture to make discovering and using library services and resources more straight-forward; and
  • Alignment with other UNT schools and colleges in adopting the new UNT branding requirements.

UNT Libraries’ Catalog

• The UNT Libraries’ online catalog provides a way for users to search, find, and obtain library materials. It provides related links to resources such as Google Books and Google Scholar to help enrich the research process.
• The User Interfaces Unit oversees the catalog’s web interface within the boundaries of the overall library system. We have heavily modified the original design to ensure that it works well and is easy to use, and we continue to monitor usage statistics to help us make further improvements.
• At the end of 2012, the User Interfaces Unit completed a project to migrate the Electronic Resources interface from an aging homegrown system into the catalog. Records for databases and e-journals are now incorporated into catalog searches, and we also maintain an interface within the catalog that includes databases and e-journals-specific searches and A-Z listings. E-books, which are also included in the catalog, can also be searched separately via an e-book material-type search.

Resource Discovery: Find Online Articles

• Helping patrons discover the information resources that they need is what libraries are all about, and the User Interfaces Unit is committed to improving how UNT Libraries’ patrons discover resources online. The launch of our Find Online Articles service (powered by Serials Solutions’ Summon) in early 2012 represents a major step forward in this area. With it, users can search the full-text of articles across >92% of electronic resources to which we subscribe from a single search box and gain immediate access to them.
• The User Interfaces Unit continues to maintain UNT Libraries’ Find Online Articles service based on user feedback and the updates that Serials Solutions issues for Summon. We have customized the interface within what the system allows to help make the discovery (and acquisition) process work more smoothly, and we continue to customize and enable new features as they become available.
• Moving forward, the User Interfaces Unit is working toward better incorporating all of our major discovery interfaces (including Find Online Articles) into a streamlined, seamless resource discovery experience.

UNT Digital Library

• The UNT Digital Library is a centralized repository for the rich collections held by the libraries, colleges, schools, and departments at UNT. Materials include theses, dissertations, artwork, performances, musical scores, journals, government documents, rare books, historical posters, the CyberCemetery, and much more!
• In cooperation with the Digital Projects Unit, the User Interfaces Unit contributed to the initial needs assessment and usability studies, built wireframes, and guided work for the site’s information architecture and visual design. We continue to add enhancements to the system on a regular basis.

The Portal to Texas History

• The Portal to Texas History is a gateway to Texas history materials and contains unique collections from Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical & genealogical societies, and private family collections. The Portal features digital reproductions of photographs, maps, letters, documents, books, artifacts, and newspapers. In addition, the Portal’s Resources4Educators pages provide relevant materials for students and classroom teachers.
• In cooperation with the Digital Projects Unit, the User Interfaces Unit contributed to the initial needs assessment and usability studies, built wireframes, and guided work for the site’s information architecture and visual design. We continue to add enhancements to the system on a regular basis.

Blogs at the UNT Libraries

• In collaboration with the Facilities & System division, the User Interfaces Unit launched this brand new service in Spring 2013.
• This service aims at increasing the diversity and range of the scholarly and creative output from UNT Library employees, encouraging professional excellence, and attracting patrons and community interest in all topics related to the services at the UNT Libraries.

UNT Press

• UNT Press, founded in 1987, has quickly become a leading press with more than 350 titles in print. Dedicated to producing high quality scholarly, academic, and general interest books, the UNT Press currently publishes between 15 - 20 titles each year.
• The User Interfaces Unit designed, developed, and migrated the UNT Press website to Drupal content management system during late summer 2011. The new site features a dynamic book banner rotation; scrolling images of new, forthcoming, and bestselling book titles; social networking; lightbox display; and Google preview. The User Interfaces Unit provides monthly maintenance for the website.

The Gateway to Oklahoma History

• The Gateway to Oklahoma History is an online repository of Oklahoma history, brought online by the Oklahoma Historical Society.
• The User Interfaces Unit provided visual interface design service to the Gateway to Oklahoma History site, and in collaboration with the Digital Projects Unit, developed the front-end user interface for the repository.

UNT Honors College’s The Eagle Feather

• The Eagle Feather is an interdisciplinary undergraduate research journal for students at UNT. The current 2013 issue features 33 articles by 34 student researchers mentored by 30 faculty and graduate student mentors.
• The tenth volume of The Eagle Feather published in October 2013 has a brand new look! This new design is managed through Drupal content management system.
• Highlights include:
  • Rotating banner feature on the homepage allowing us to create multiple slide show-styled banners;
  • Context driven content to enrich the features in the new Issue’s Preface;
  • Generation of lists by department and faculty mentor;
  • Three new sections including Mentor of the Year, Department of the Year, and Where Are They Now? highlighting authors who published articles in the first Issue;
  • Links to the faculty mentor’s Faculty Profile at UNT;
  • Colorbox feature providing visual enhancement;
  • Article citation feature and generation of a DOI for each article; and
  • Over 300 social sharing buttons.
• The User Interfaces Unit receives research articles in Word document format beginning in July of each year and we transform them into an electronic journal format. We have provided services and website maintenance to The Eagle Feather since 2004.

History of Costume in Slides, Notes, and Commentaries

• A History of Costume in Slides, Notes, and Commentaries is a unique six-volume work of visual lectures with 1,500 color slides and a 450-page text of notes, sketches, and slide commentaries. The collection shows, through beautiful works of art, the history of clothing for women and men throughout Western civilization from ancient Egypt to 1992.
• Originally developed with ColdFusion/MySQL in 2004 by the Multimedia Development Lab at UNT Libraries, this content-rich online slides database has been given a second life after the site was migrated into Drupal 7 in 2011.
• All University of North Texas affiliated individuals with valid UNT EUID and Password can access the content of the online database after logging in.