Fix One Thing: "Resources" is not a navigation label
Make your library's website more usable one fix at a time.
In libraries, we love the word “resources.” We have electronic resources, community resources, research resources, local history resources, homework resources, genealogy resources, business resources, legal resources, and probably at least a dozen other flavors of resources hiding somewhere on our websites. And, that, folks, is the problem.
“Resources” has no true specific meaning. To us, “Resources” may feel like a useful umbrella term. But, to users, it often translates to: “Here’s a mystery option. Good luck!”
What the data says
Users rely on navigation labels to decide whether a click is worth the effort. In user experience (UX) terms, those labels provide “information scent.” A strong label gives users a reasonable clue about what they will find if they follow it. A weak label makes users guess.
NN/g’s research on how people read and scan online notes that users are usually trying to finish tasks quickly and with minimal effort. They scan for meaningful links, headings, and other cues that help them decide where to go next. When the words on the page offer weak information scent, users are less likely to keep reading or follow the path in front of them.
“Resources” is a very weak scent. It doesn’t tell the user what they will find. Worse, it can mean different things on different library websites, so even experienced library users cannot reliably predict what is behind it.
Our meaning is not the user meaning
Inside libraries, “resources” is a comfortable word. It sounds broad, helpful, and professional.
But users usually come to a website with a task in mind:
“I need to renew my books.”
“I need homework help.”
“I need ebooks.”
“I need the library’s hours.”
“I need a study room.”
“I need legal forms.”
“I need to print something.”
Pretty much nobody comes with “I wonder where the resources are.” That mismatch matters. Good navigation is not about what staff call things internally. It is about what users recognize when they are trying to get something done.
Poor navigation labels like “Resources” can significantly increase the cognitive load. Now the user has to spend time trying to interpret something, which is an obstacle to completing the task they came to do. Interpretation takes takes time the user doesn’t want to spend.
When a navigation label requires that much interpretation, it’s not helping anyone. Instead, it’s offloading the website’s organizational problems onto the user. And users are not on your website because they want to admire your organizational structure. They are there because they need something.
What to use instead
I think we’ve established that simply using “Resources” is terrible. That might lead you to ask: “Well, can’t we just use “Genealogy Resources?” That’s certainly a step up, but doesn’t really solve the problem. Let me ask you this: what’s wrong with simply “Genealogy?” Or, “Homework Help?” What is truly being added by tacking on the word “resources,” when studies are pretty clear in that it’s a poor navigational aid?
“Resources” is one of those words that feels clear only because library staff have been using it forever. But familiar is not the same as useful.
A good navigation label should help users make a confident choice. It should point toward a real destination, not gesture vaguely at a pile of possibly useful things.
So yes, your library has resources.
That does not mean your website needs a link called Resources.