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Peer Institutions:
Library Screen Resolutions

A review of peer institution screen resolutions for their library home pages was conducted on 4 April 2002. Recent statistics show the use of 640 x 480 pixel screen resolutions has dropped below 5 percent. This number continues to decrease as older computers are phased out and replaced. Many of the Web's most highly-trafficked sites now utilize a home page design (and many an entire site design) based on a minimum 800 x 600 pixel screen resolution.

For this review, I measured the width of the content area on the home page in pixels using a screen capture utility. The numbers represent the content area only (design and navigation) and do NOT include browser elements such as borders and scroll bars. In other words, this is the design area being used regardless of browser type or operating system.

Width was determined by narrowing the browser window as much as possible without requiring horizontal scrolling and then rounded up to the nearest multiple of 10 pixels. Height is determined by length on page to capture bottom-most main navigational item (‡ - exceeds 850 pixels - scrolling necessary).

*Link = indicates whether there is a library link on the University's main home page.

On the Windows operating system using Internet Explorer (the vast majority of users), the available design area with the browser window maximized on a 640 x 480 screen is 612 pixels wide (640 minus the width of the browser window borders and scroll bar). Therefore, any sites exceeding 612 pixels in width require an 800 x 600 screen to view entirely without horizontal scrolling.

Out of 53 peer institutions:

  • 17 of the home pages fit entirely within 612 pixels width

  • 36 of the home pages are wider than the available 612 pixels

  • Out of those 36, 19 exceed 640 pixels in the content area, indicating they are clearly designed for a minimum 800 x 600 screen

School

Library Home Page
(width x height)

Link*

Baylor College of Medicine n/a n/a
Boston College 700 x 660 YES
Boston University 520 x 590 NO
Brown University 720 x 850‡ YES
Carnegie Mellon University 600 x 720 (1) NO
Columbia University 650 x 490 YES
Cornell 610 x 560 YES
Dartmouth College 630 x 610 YES
Drexel University 550 x 520 NO
Duke University 640 x 850‡ NO
 
Georgetown 660 x 470 YES
Georgia Institute of Technology 810 x 580 NO
Harvard University 600 x 450 YES
Indiana University - Bloomington 720 x 680 (2) YES
Iowa State University 750 x 490 YES
Johns Hopkins University 790 x 850‡ YES
Louisiana State University 650 x 680 YES
MIT 720 x 430 YES
Michigan State University 630 x 560 YES
North Carolina State University 620 x 610 YES
 
Northwestern University
750 x 590 YES
Ohio State University 780 x 780 YES
Penn State University 750 x 560 YES
Princeton University 770 x 730 YES
Purdue University 730 x 600 YES
Rutgers University 730 x 740 YES
Stanford University 510 x 530 YES
Texas A&M University 640 x 850‡ YES
University of Arizona 660 x 490 YES
University of California - Berkeley 760 x 750 YES
 
University of California - Davis
630 x 700 YES
University of California - LA 740 x 610 YES
University of California - San Diego 620 x 590 YES
University of Colorado 650 x 850‡ NO
University of Florida 670 x 620 YES
University of Georgia 650 x 440 YES
University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) 600 x 850‡ YES
University of Maryland College Park 600 x 540 NO
University of Michigan 600 x 600 YES
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities 780 x 620 YES
 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
700 x 510 YES
University of Notre Dame 760 x 850‡ YES
University of Pennsylvania 650 x 720 YES
University of Pittsburgh 720 x 660 YES
University of Rochester 670 x 670 YES
University of Southern California 600 x 720 YES
University of Tennessee Knoxville 560 x 440 YES
University of Texas at Austin 790 x 600 YES
University of Washington 690 x 560 YES
University of Wisconsin Madison 630 x 440 YES
 
Virginia Polytechnic Institute 760 x 610 YES
Washington University 660 x 540 YES
Yale University 780 x 550 YES

AVERAGES

677 width

45/52

1 - new site launching in May, linked from Library home page
2 - half of page was a variable-width column, so I sized the width so none of the text in this column scrolls off the bottom of the page

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NIS  |  OIT  |  Boston University  |   October 24, 2002