Last week, we celebrated a day 18 months in the making—the launch of our new website!
As of 7 o’clock last Wednesday, anyone who visits libraries.rutgers.edu will be brought to our redesigned website. In case you missed it, here is a video highlighting some of the new features that users can now take advantage of (with special thanks to graduate assistant Natalie Lau for the narration):
It is so exciting for me to see how far this project has come. From our early sessions sorting cards or post-its and sketching personas, to the many phases of user research and testing, to the shiny new product you see here today, it has been an amazing process to be a part of. I know it will take some getting used to for everyone involved—both our users as well as our faculty and staff—but I think we’ve created a site that’s very special and something we all should be proud of.
As Consuella mentioned in her email, there are so many people to thank for helping this project come to fruition. Of course, this includes the project team—Doug Allen, Antonio Barrera, Amy Kimura, John Powell, Jonathan Torres, Sonia Yaco, and Yini Zhu—and especially the local representatives, who have had the difficult task of communicating with their units about a website that was constantly changing and growing. (This was such a fun and productive group to be a part of, and I will miss all of our pre-meeting shenanigans with the fancy Zoom filters!) It also includes the AULs and AVP—Judy Cohn, Regina Koury, Dee Magnoni, and Rhonda Marker—as well as their local teams, who have all had to prioritize this project despite so many other competing demands on their time. Last but certainly not least, thanks to the technical team who have dedicated many hours of development work to the site after it was handed off to us by NewCity—Eva Chan, Jie Geng, Dave Hoover, and Sam McDonald.
To that, I would like to add my personal thanks to the following people:
- Amy Kimura, without whose Herculean effort creating content, coordinating working groups, and liaising with NewCity this project would simply not have been possible;
- Antonio Barrera, whose project management and development expertise shone throughout this project, especially as he bridged the gap between the development teams at the Libraries and NewCity;
- Abbey DiPaolo, who was a constant champion for the project and always pushed us to make the website the best it could be, even when there were tough decisions to be made;
- Kris Maloney, whose vision for a better web presence for the Libraries inspired this project from the beginning; and
- Consuella Askew, who seamlessly took over the reins in the late phases and led our way to the finish line.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and many other cooks have contributed to this particular kitchen. But it has been one of the highlights of my professional career to have been a part of this project with this outstanding team, and I’m grateful to have played a small part in getting it to where it is today. That said, I know there is plenty more work to be done, and I am looking forward to continuing our efforts to make the Libraries’ website the best it can be for our users.
As a reminder, if you have any questions or concerns about the new site—whether yours or a patron’s—please direct them to webservices@libraries.rutgers.edu. You can also learn more about the site and the redesign project by visiting the Web Redesign Project Team’s staff resources page.
