Books with New Looks: The Bookshelf Redesign

National Library of Medicine | National Institutes of Health

 

 

 

From a November 24, 2010 US National Library of Medicine (NLM) Technical Bulletin Announcement

The books in Bookshelf have been given a new look as part of a redesign that is taking place in several stages. The Bookshelf redesign goes beyond cosmetic enhancements; it includes infrastructural improvements to facilitate the discovery of information at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

The first (and completed) stage is the redesign that improves how all book pages are displayed. The table of contents page of every book now displays the book’s bibliographic data, such as the book title, author, publisher, and copyright information. A thumbnail display of the book cover shows prominently and an abstract or excerpt from the book is displayed above the table of contents. On the right side of the page, related PubMed® citations and history of recent activity may display (see Figure 1). Where available, links to other NCBI resources, such as Gene and OMIM, may also display. These new panels mark the ongoing work to create rich links between NCBI resources and to maximize discoverability of related materials.

In common with PubMed, the blue NCBI header and search bar are displayed at the top of all pages, and at the bottom of each page the standard NCBI footer links to many NCBI resources. Click on “Bookshelf” (upper left on any page) to return to the homepage.

Once inside a book, all pages have been given a more balanced and clean layout. The text of the page is more readable through improved page layout, typography, and standardized headings. Figures can be quickly previewed: a large version of the image pops up over the page when you mouseover the thumbnail (see Figure 2). Clicking on the thumbnail opens the image in a new window and allows you to see the title and caption for the figure……