KU history Web site launches new version to celebrate anniversary

LAWRENCE -- A Web site chronicling the history of the University of Kansas is looking toward the future as it adds new features and programming in its second year of operation.

"This Week in KU History," located at www.kuhistory.com, today launched version 2.0 to celebrate the popular site's first anniversary of operation.

New features of the site include a chronological time line of KU's history as well as special sections that interpret that history on a thematic basis. New programming enables users to scroll forward and backward in the calendar year.

Funding for these enhancements was made possible by support from the KU Endowment Association.

The time line scrolls horizontally and offers a year-by-year listing of key dates in the university's history. All listings contain links to full-length articles.

The thematic history section allows users to examine KU history on a topical basis. Sections range from "Architecture" to "Women on the Hill" and include collections of articles about basketball, football and track, profiles of chancellors and a series focusing on "Protest and Dissent" and "KU Traditions."

Other enhancements include access to prior and upcoming dates directly from the site's home page and a new KU History eCard feature that allows users to send historically illustrated e-mail messages.

In addition, each of the 123 articles on This Week in KU History contains a "Reference Center" box that gives users precise citation information, offers the ability to bookmark an article for future reference and provides a button to forward the article to an e-mail address.

Begun in January 2001, This Week in KU History is a project of the KU Memorial Unions. The site was formally unveiled in late November 2002. During its first full year of operation, the site generated more than 328,000 individual page views over the course of more than 73,000 individual visitor sessions. Visitors hail from all 50 states and from 118 foreign countries.