Invisible: The Online Presence of Medical Library Web Pages on Hospital Web Sites

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the Web presence of the hospital medical library on the public Web sites of the 10 top-ranked hospitals in the United States, with a focus on the top-ranked hospital, Johns Hopkins Medicine. The navigation elements of the top 10 U.S. hospitals were examined, particularly the navigation bars, menus, and site search engines. Results indicate that links to the Web pages of hospital medical libraries were largely lacking from the primary navigation systems on the home page and first-level Web pages of hospital Web sites. Phrase searches conducted with the hospitals' site search engines revealed that links to the hospital medical library are often located at the third level (sub-subsection) of the hospital Web site, which limits their visibility to hospital Web site visitors. To improve visibility, hospital librarians must assume a proactive stance. Hospital departments commonly involved in managing the hospital's public Web site are the information technology (IT) department and the corporate communication department. Hospital medical librarians should work closely with their hospital's Webmaster and Communications Department to ensure that links to the medical library Web pages are consistently represented in the primary navigation systems of their hospital's public Web site.