In many ways, the library website is a destination much as the library building is a destination. You go there purposefully to acquire information or communications that are wholly contained as part of the site itself. But library websites are also seen as gateways to other "places" such as subscription databases. Librarians need to shift their thinking about the website as a gateway to the library, and start thinking about the website as the library itself, the physical space being inseparable from the Web space. The website should be considered a destination in and of itself; an actual place in addition to and instead of a virtual place. I think that for libraries to remain a desirable destination in users' minds and not just an authentication gateway, they will need to pull subscription content out of the provider's Web environments and bring it into the library's Web environment. Additionally, libraries might try to have a much more responsive presence on the website, anticipating the questions and navigational choices our user might make. By making this shift in thinking, the physical place/space becomes just one of many resources and services available from the “place” of the library website.
This is a radical de-centering of what we understand as The Library. In this "destination paradigm" The Library, (and its electronic parallel the online library catalog,) is replaced by the website as the nexus of collections, services, expertise, communities and (lest we forget) buildings that have heretofore formed our concept of library. As the librarian at the reference desk is to the in-person user, so the library website is to the online user. The library website serves as librarian by proxy for users who never engage directly with a librarian as a result of their location or disposition.
Libraries need websites that respond to users as they navigate. We take pride in the availability and responsiveness of librarians and staff in our buildings. Why should the website be any different? Let us shift the website experience from a static one, in which the library serves as the login gateway to subscription resources, to an active experience in which the user has the convenience of a single search box for resources, or they can choose to immerse themselves a media-rich interactive user experience that allows for independent or guided learning.
