New Look for the GC Library Website

The Graduate Center Library has a new website! It sports a crisp new look, streamlined architecture, and pared-down, richer content. We built the site, embedded search tools, and linked it to the popular Library Blog using the WordPress Themify theme.

Here’s what you’ll find:

  • Three search tabs — titled Catalog, Databases, and Other Searches — cluster the same tools we’ve always offered, only in different ways
  • Improved mobile display and operation
  • A uniform look across all library services, matching the GC website look and feel
  • Content “accordion” divisions for easier reading
  • The photo slider links to the Library Blog posts and announcements

Initial Reactions:

Here’s Roxanne Shirazi, a MALS student and GC adjunct librarian, seeing the site for the first time.

Heidi Knobloch, Program Coordinator for the JustPublics@365 Project, offers her first impressions:

Coming soon:

  • A new CUNY-wide search tool, Primo, planned for fall 2014 will offer cross-database and cross-catalog searching
  • A version update will improve the form and function of subject and topic guides

Here’s how it happened: Digital Services Librarian Stephen Klein headed the redesign project and team that included Head of Public Services and Scholarly Communications Jill Cirasella, Electronic Resources Librarian Alycia Sellie, Reference and Instruction Librarian Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, and Chief Librarian Polly Thistlethwaite.  We worked in close collaboration with other library staff. Serials Assistant Melissa Longhi’s design sense was invaluable in revamping the Library logo, and Adjunct Reference Librarian Kai Alexis Smith offered key suggestions, including organizing the content “accordion-style.” We also hired web designer Rachel Goldstein to wrangle with CSS and make our design ideas work. Stephen and Rachel crafted a uniform look for the many different components of “the library website” — including Journal Title Search, EZProxy, Interlibrary Loan, Ask a Librarian — and put together a site that is easier to look at, to navigate, and to maintain.

Let us know what you think: The web team would love to hear from you! Use this form to tell us anything about the new library website. And look forward to modifications in the future as we improve the site based on your feedback.

About the Author

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is an Assistant Professor and Head of Reference at the Graduate Center Library.