Report on: "Campus Portals and Libraries" -Presenters- John Vedral, Elaine Allard and Casey Bisson Merrimack College, North Andover, MA by Bridget Rawding, Merrimack College
March 12, 2004

What is a Portal for a Campus?
Presented by:  John Vedral, Internet Strategies Manager, University of New England

• John Vedral provided an overview of campus portals, explaining what a portal is and how it is used. He used the "Campus Pipeline" portal at the University of New England as an example.
• John defined a campus portal as "a central location for campus and community information" such as links to other campus websites, community news and information, and communication tools such as chat, discussion boards, and a link to campus email.
• He compared campus portals to other kinds of portals such as My Yahoo (general purpose) and FirstGov (specialized purpose).
• An important feature of some portals is that it allows users to customize what information is presented, based on their preferences. Other portals are automatically customized based on a user's affiliation (for example, a student majoring in a particular department, a faculty member, or an alumna/us).
• Pages customized for accepted students can be an important tool for communication and marketing, highlighting the best of what an institution has to offer.
• Other important content includes links to course information, library resources, special interest groups, etc.
• Evaluation à "Is it worth the effort?"
• In a survey of portal users, the vast majority found it to be "Very" or "Somewhat" helpful for improving campus communications.
• However, the importance of including a link to email accounts was stressed; over 80% of users said they would not use the campus pipeline if it did not provide their email access.