Reference page demos

I've sort of finished some candidates for the long-promised reference page (sorry it took so long). I've consolidated all the reference pages, removed some pedantic language, and added new elements. If these designs turn out to be any good, I'll use them for other pages I plan to make (the department page, ILL page, etc.) It is mostly html, but has some CSS use.

I've made 3 versions (All of them work in IE now):
#3 151 kb total
#2 188 kb total
#1 198 kb totall
I like the first and last ones the most. Let me know which you think is the least ugly. Or if they all are. There's a poll to the right. Anyone may provide input!

My reasoning here is:

- it's distinctly different from other ULM web pages
- it looks fairly modern
- websites are marketing tools. Someone who has never been here or doesn't know what Reference is will get first impressions here.
- I wanted it to appear friendly
- The images in the margins break up the extra space at high resolutions, but the middle column is 700px across, so it can be viewed at low resolutions (some blogs like this one do this, and better too)

My dream was to make something that looked like this Biola University page. But I think it's beyond my skill level right now.

(this is cross-posted on the Library Web Page Committee blog )