Design considerations for the Library of Congress Learning Page: providing learners context and access to the collections - World Wide Web site - Children and the Digital Library

To reduce cognitive load, each page follows the same presentation template: navigational text line, visual orientation banner, scope of page, alphabetical index line, and list of main subject headings. Placing the navigational text line at the top of the page allows return visitors instant access to the system page of their choice. Each visual orientation banner serves two purposes: one, to identify this family of pages; and two, to preview the resources within the collections. Navigational buttons on the model of the banner are located at the bottom of each page (Park & Hannafin, 1993; Lynch, 1996). Research shows that search strategies vary with task specificity: ill-defined topics produce browsing behavior; well-defined topics produce expedient search behavior (Lai & Waugh, 1995, p. 27) -- the page allows for both search strategies.

Four of the Pathfinder Pages provide an alphabetized subject listing (Time provides a chronological listing) which indexes the pages' themes to relevant collections listed under each heading. Using the Pathfinder Pages, the researcher can immediately see the types and number of collections and other LC offerings on a particular subject. This provides support to the novice researcher who might be overwhelmed by American Memory's cross-collection search tool, which generates a multipage, item-level, relevancy-ranked list of all the possibilities of the search request.

Furthering research goals, the Pathfinder Pages also allow learners the opportunity to use the HTML (hypertext markup language) files as personal research tools. Research requires time for searching and thoughtful reflection. Classroom time militates against this with fixed class periods and limited access to computers. To aid students in reaching the materials related to their topics, the Pathfinder Pages are structured so that each can become an online gateway into the collections. The pages organize their subjects and related LC materials into smaller files by alphabetic character. These smaller files can be downloaded and kept on diskette. Each link mentioned in the pages contains the complete URL (uniform resource locator), rather than using the relational addressing convention. When the file is viewed through a Web browser, the links to the collections become active and enable the student to enter the appropriate collections or exhibits without a "Web trail," reducing the time necessary to reach the materials. Each click of the mouse draws the student further into the Web site, closer toward the goal of obtaining information pertinent to the student's research task. Disorientation is minimized by the Pathfinder Pages' overview subject listing of collections and LC materials to which the student may always return.

The Future

As with everything on the World Wide Web, the Learning Page is in a continual state of evolution. Its framework allows for expansion as the Library of Congress adds more materials to its online presence. The Learning Page is designed as a system based on the needs of its constituents, and thus it will continue to be responsive to those needs. Its hypermedia design, based on principles derived from Instructional Systems Design, will mature as the state of the online hypermedium called the World Wide Web matures. The Learning Page can provide LC with an online gateway and speedy access to its digitized collections to further its goal of raising the public's awareness of the value of primary sources.