Before the readings what did you think a library website should provide, what issues did it need to address, if any? Did you have an exemplar site that you know about? Has anything you read this week changed your ideas? How? How not?
Before reading the materials I thought that school websites should provide several services. The first is that it should provide students a place to access the library catalog easily, both at home and school. Another important attribute would be a page that is a source for research information and guides. This feature would be especially important for secondary education. Additionally, school library website should give students guidance when it comes to copyright and citation.
Added features for a website would be interactive features and book discussions. Make the website both a social and educational meeting place for the library.
I've been researching a few school library websites through my course work and have come across several that I have found both useful and educational. One example would be the Canandaigua Middle School library website.
http://www.canandaiguaschools.org/webpages/mdyroff/index.cfm
I think this site does a good job of combining form and function into one. It offers students many areas to explore, but it doesn't feel heavy or over done. It includes unique options such as: book fair, library statistics, and games.
Some things the readings made me think about this week: using images in website design. I've designed several websites in the past and a few of those used images as links or scroll over images. I can see how this could be a problem for those who are visually impaired. It might also be an issue for mobile users. Often images don't load properly on tablets or phones. This would cause huge problems for those users if the images were links.
I found navigation to be a key issue in building a website. When creating the navigation features of a website you should be thinking of the ease of use. I think a lot of websites assume that people are familiar with how websites work and flow. What I've learned through my coursework is that we should never assume a student or patron knows how to do anything, ever. Make navigation simple! Make if easy and fun! make it self evident and if not make a way back to the homepage so people don't get to lost.
On my search I found this interesting website:
http://faillab.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/the-ugly-truth-about-library-websites/
This website offers great criticism and advice for school websites. In my opinion, it might not be so bad to ask librarians to take a web design class. It might help libraries become more functional and accessible to their patrons.
An all encompassing blog about library life and interesting things.
