Effective
Library Website Criteria
1.
Up to date and regular
postings.
2.
Easy to navigate
3.
Search bars on every page
4.
Relevant photos
5.
Mobile Friendly
6.
Feedback
7.
Ability to view catalogue and
reserve items
8.
Contact information/online
librarian service
Most of my criteria were selected after
reading the Matthews article which was comprehensive. I added a few of my own, and left out some of
his. The library website I intend to
review is not a children’s library, so I didn’t use anything from Lazaris. I was interested to note the difference
between what works when marketing to children, and how different it is to
targeting adults.
This is my local library, there are 6
different locations through the Blue Mountains (Blaxland, Springwood, Lawson,
Wentworth Falls, Katoomba and Blackheath).
It is possible to get books from any of the other branches if what you
want isn’t at your local branch.
I use the library infrequently. I have a kindle, and do most of my fiction
reading on that. My children use their
school libraries, though we have used the local branch for additional material
for projects. I had fairly low
expectations about them using any Web 2.0 tools to be honest, so I was
pleasantly surprised by their blog Readers in the mist. It’s called a book review blog, but also has
announcements of events and lots of information about the library, arranged
under tabs.
As far as the above criteria are concerned:
1. The
homepage was updated yesterday. Other
pages have not been touched for some time however, some of them for a couple
years. There are a few comments made, and one has not
been responded to at all. Lots of links
to other sites, 12 broken (checked with Website Goodies).
The Facebook link only took me to my own
Facebook homepage, and Twitter has not been updated since June. Further exploration,
and I discovered that the council have a website, and the library posts on that
wall.
Social media presence is definitely an area
that needs to be improved.
2.
Both the blog, and the council site are easy to navigate.
3.
Search bars are on every page.
4.
Relevant photos (books and The three Sisters). There are no attributions for the
photos. After making an electronic
pathfinder for ETL501, I did go looking for this, and couldn’t find
anything. I was a little disappointed by
this, as I know how simple it is to do the right thing as far as copyright
goes. There are also pictures of book
covers, and I am dubious about whether permission has been sought to publish
them, remembering the hoops some people jumped through last semester, getting
permission to put photos of book jackets on their sites.
5.
The blog is mobile friendly.
6.
Feedback is possible on the blog.
Comments are moderated, and there is a list of what is and is not
considered acceptable, all very common sense things like not being abusive or
using bad language.
7.
On the council site, the catalogue is available to search, and you can
see where the book you want is located, and can request that it is held for
you, and at which branch you would like to pick it up. There is no charge for
this service.
8. The
contact point is very clear, and has it’s own tab, where all the addresses and
phone numbers for each branch are listed.
There is no facility for talking to a librarian online, but during
business hours, I know they are happy to talk on the phone and help you,
because I’ve rung them before.
Very comprehensive ... well done!
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