Keeping track of 5.4 million books, some 46,000 online journals and 100,000 e-books is no easy task. Luckily, the Penn State University Libraries website exists to deliver that mind-boggling volume of content to Penn Staters on demand. There’s just one problem: the current website isn’t exactly the most user friendly. It gives me the same feeling of information overload in my junior year as it did when I was a freshman.

Enter the redesigned, beta test version of the University Libraries website. Declaring it a mere improvement over the previous version would be a serious understatement. The new site puts the most used tools right on the front page. A search box smack in the middle of the page lets users search through results from the CAT, articles, databases, e-journals and even the library site. This search box creates a one stop shop for all your library content searching needs.

As for the rest of the new Libraries homepage, information is separated into clearly defined categories so users can easily find library hours, how to cite correctly and how to get help, among other things.

You can check out the Beta version of the website here. Visitors are urged to provide feedback on the redesign, which you can do here.

[Website & Screenshot]