Admittedly, I have a vested interest in UNC libraries that many people in the class probably don't have. After all, I was born and raised in Chapel Hill, and actually used the UNC library system there while in high school. Unsurprisingly, they seem to have updated their OPAC in the intervening years, so I was back at square one for navigation anyway.
The site's homepage is free of any artificial clutter - no large, distracting pictures here. Most importantly, the catalog search is prominently displayed and requires no additional clicks to get too (something I generally hate about the UT libraries homepage.) Almost as easy to find are the links directing the user to the electronic resources the school has access to, something that is increasingly important as more and more researchers choose to access online publications instead of requesting paper journal archives, for instance. The help links are also very easy to find including links to Endnote and Refworks, as well as the "Ask a librarian" feature - which directs the user to a page with links to chat with and email librarians, as well as a big, helpful button indicating whether any librarians are online and automatically opening the chat window. It appears that like some other OPACs already reviewed on this blog, the system has contracted out after-hours questions to an independent answering service.
Also displayed on the home page are links so some of the more specialized resources the library offers, including a special search for the Media Resource Center film collection and the digital collections including DocSouth, the university's impressive attempt to" provide Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture." DocSouth is a tremendously fun resource to browse, and with a little clicking I discovered a digital facsimile of the 1861 Texas constitution, accessible to anyone with a web browser.
I have some caveats with the system, however. The home page links to separate homes for the Health Sciences Library and the Law Library, which confuses the issue of whether or not those collections are searchable from the main catalog search (they are). And of course, the catalog cannot correct one's spelling (someday they'll perfect that technology for things other than Google), so if you're me and have trouble with words like "penicillin," you might see the no results page, full of tips to modify a search, but giving no indication that you might have spelled your search terms wrong. Once you actually make it to a catalog record however, you can save it if you have a library account, add it to Refworks, and even view its MARC record. You can also hit the "Similar Records" button and pull up a list of every other entry with at least one of the same subject headings.
The Library system does not appear to have a blog, or at least there's no handy link to it from the OPAC. The Law library has a very nice "blawg" linked off of their home page, with library updates and useful tutorials and links.
In general, I find the UNC Library site to be very easy to use, and full of interesting resources, though it may take some clicking to get to them.
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