Academic law librarians - especially the geeky ones - are abuzz about a new article that studies and ranks law school websites. More specifically, the article evaluates law school home pages, and ranks them according to fourteen elements that are judged to be important in how easy-to-use a website home page is. The author of the study is Roger V. Skalbeck of the Georgetown University Law Center. As the article says, "The website home page represents the virtual front door for any law school. It’s the place many prospective students start in the application process. Enrolled students, law school faculty and other employees often start with the home page to find classes, curricula and compensation plans... This brief ranking report attempts to identify the best law school home pages based entirely on objective criteria. The goal was to include elements that make websites easier to use for sighted as well as visually impaired users. Most elements require no special design skills, sophisticated technology or significant expenses."
Using this ranking system, the top five law school homepages are: George Mason, U. Virginia, Wayne State, University of Washington, and Harvard. Pitt ranks 185 out of 195 law schools; Duquesne is 186. The "worst" law school home page? University of Puerto Rico comes in at 195.
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