Reprint from Collections & Connections
Spring 1998, Vol. 2, No. 2

There's a new look for the Homepage of the University Libraries and Kentucky Museum on the WWW! In an effort to make the University Libraries and Museum Homepage more accessible to the users in the WKU community, the Homepage has added three columns of offerings for an easier selection of the more than 600 pages of information about and available from the University Libraries and Kentucky Museum.

Originally, the University Libraries and Kentucky Museum Homepage had six buttons. These buttons linked to information broken down broadly by service, department, or speciality. Since users might not know which service or department button they needed to access to find their information, a Library and Museum Index was added. But, as the information, resources, and guides continued to be added to the University Libraries and Kentucky Museum Web site, it became obvious a more efficient and user-friendly access was needed.

The columns on the Homepage of the University Libraries and Kentucky Museum fall into three categories: Information, Services, and Resources and Guides. The Information column is a list of links to factual information a patron might need. This includes the hours the libraries and museum are open, a calendar of events, details about awards, a way to find out about faculty, and even the mission of the library, among many other selections.

The Services column is a list of links which connect the user to information about various services. If someone needs to find out how to order an item through Interlibrary Loan, the details are just a click away. Information about museum exhibits, workshops, and the Ask Us! Web reference service is also listed in this column.

The last column is Resources and Guides, a listing of selections which are especially useful for instruction. There is a link to a guide to doing research. Details on how to evaluate a Web site for content, information about KERA, and tips on searching the Internet reside in this column. There is also a link to information about style manuals so that a student, who needs to create a footnote or a bibliography can jump quickly to a listing of the style manuals the library owns (APA Style Manual or MLA Handbook, for example) and where those books are located. It's even possible to access some hyperlinks from that page to some Internet versions of the style manuals. A link to the Pathfinders page leads the user to a source of subject specific guides created by librarians in their subject specialty, and covering book and Internet resources in a given subject area.

The University Libraries and the Kentucky Museum's Homepage has a new look, but do more than look! Spend some time and explore what the Homepage of the University Libraries and the Kentucky Museum has to offer!

~ Elisabeth Knight

The "sHOw Modular Model Railroad Club Expo" returns to The Kentucky Museum, April 1 - May 3.

The modular layouts, designed and built by club members, feature operating model trains, track, buildings and scenery in 1/87 scale (one inch equals 87 inches in real life). Last year's show, scheduled as part of the Bowling Green/Warren County Bicentennial exhibit "First American Roads, Rails and Rivers: Warren County Then and Now," was immensely popular because the miniature Louisville and Nashville, CSX and R. J. Corman trains glided along tracks that ran through imaginatively re-created and readily identifiable buildings and scenes from the community.

For more information about specific times the trains will be operating, activities scheduled as part of EXPO '98, or to arrange group tours, contact The Kentucky Museum at (502) 745-2592.

~ Earlene Chelf

Collections & Connections, received an "Award of Excellence - Fund Raising Publications" in a competition sponsored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education - Kentucky (CASE-Kentucky), as part of the organization's fall 1997 meeting.

Newsletter co-editors are Earlene Chelf and Beth Knight; the editorial staff are Carol Cummings, Connie Foster, Jonathan Jeffrey, Elaine Moore and Sandy Staebell. Also involved in newsletter production are library and museum administrators Dean Michael B. Binder and Department Heads Linda Allan, Brian Coutts and Riley Handy.