Creating a School
Library Media Center Web Page
As a school library Media Specialist, you have been given
the task to build a web page for your school library media center . The
first thought that comes to mind is “Where do I start?” In
order to build a good, usable website for your school library, you need to
think in two very different ways. First, you need to think like a librarian.
What do your patrons need, and how can you best serve them? Second, you need to think like a web designer.
Since most of us are not web designer this is the most daunting part of the
task. (Walbert, 2012) Start with what you know and build the page
from there. The web page should be an extension
of your media center. Keep it simple
and meet the needs of your users.
How to get started?
Start your research by browsing the internet for existing
pages and look for items that appeal to you.
Make note of the things that you do and don’t like and components that
you might like to include on your web page.
Take a look at the font, images and other content included on their pages. What things are users friendly and what are
not? Overall, make sure the page that
you envision is useful to your media center and to the user who visit the
site. For this blog, I have browsed several
media center web pages. Most are very
simple and to the point which is all you need.
If you try to get “too fancy” with your web page design you may make the
page unfriendly to many users by using colors or images that make not be universally
accessible.
What to include on
your web page
There is no set formula as what to include on you web page
but I believe a few very important topics include:
• School and LMC Mission and Policies
• Calendar – including upcoming school and library events
• Media Specialist, teacher, and student podcasts including
booktalks
• Online catalogs for not only your school LMC but also
other libraries your students might use
• Reference resources and assistance
• Curriculum connections
• Literacy connections
• General information about your LMC
Web Page Do’s and Don’ts
Web Page Do’s
Do advertise your LMC website!
Do make your web page visually appealing to the user.
Do provide information relevant to your media center.
Do be user friendly!
Do make your web page fun and interesting.
Web Page Don’ts
Don’t make the page look overcrowded.
Don’t make the webpage difficult to navigate.
Don’t have a page that is too busy and confusing to the
user.
Don’t have only a list of boring topics on your web
page. Make it interactive.
For more information on building a school library media
center webpages, please visit the following sources.
Baumbach, D., Brewer, S., Renfroe, M. (2004,
September). What should be on a school library
webpage?. Retrieved from http://motherofgeeks.com/SLMC
website article.pdf
Walbert, D. (n.d.). Best practices in school library website
design. Retrieved from
Warlick, D. (2005, January/February). Building website that
work for your media center. Retrieved from
Thank you so much for all of these tips! I have spent most of the day browsing through various media center webpages, but I received much more information from reading through our class blogs. I totally agree with keeping the site simple and meeting the needs of the user. I'm afraid that I would be one of those who keeps adding links to everything I find. It would become very overwhelming for me, and I doubt it would be very useful to teachers, parents, or students. I agree with your list on what to include. Your blog will help me so much with our upcoming webpage assignment.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very well planned tip sheet for creating a LMC web page. I think it is a great idea to spend some time looking through other webpages, especially other LMC webpages, to find things to do and perhaps things not to do. It is very important to not overcrowd your webpage or users might not want to use it at all. Also, making sure to advertise your webpage is a must! Often, students do not know what is available on a webpage and so they do not visit the site. I also think that including interactive material is important. If students can feel they can interact with the website it becomes more useful to them. I think we could combine parts of our LMC webpages using Wikis in order to provide an interactive aspect to our sites. Perhaps students could provide their own book reviews or just simply rate books though the site. This might get more students involved in the site as well as promoting reading.
ReplyDelete