LMC Websites Blog 2, Team 2
Media Center Websites---In our Web 2.0 world, most schools have them. In fact, the Jurkwoski reading said that about 90% of all schools have a website of some nature. The question is- are they helping us do our jobs better? In his article, “Building Websites that Work for your Media Center,” David Warlick said we must ask ourselves that question when designing a new site or evaluating an existing site. His other question was simply “Why?”
Why are you putting each piece of information on the page? Why is that information or link important? Who is your audience? How will they learn to navigate the site? Is the information provided helping your patrons help themselves? How are your patrons going to use the information or links to further their own learning?
The Jurkwoski text suggests that you sit down and sketch out your webpage before ever beginning to build the actual site. Determine what information is essential, where information needs to be placed and how the page should look. Think about using the site from your patrons’ point of view. Your site should look different depending on the age of your students.
From my own experience, I feel that a website needs to be user friendly, inviting, but not overwhelming. Keep it simple, yet informative. Use bulleted lists, as opposed to paragraph style writing. Vary fonts and colors to create interest, but keep it classy. For younger patrons, use pictures/buttons for links. Distinguish sections of the page. Make the website appealing to your patrons while setting the stage for effective learning to take place!
My school district, as many others, has a set program (SharePoint) with a basic format for each school’s website. On the school’s main page, there is a link to the Media Center. From there, it is up to the individual school as to what information is posted. Generally, a web master is charged with the task of keeping webpages up to date and that often falls into the list of SLMS duties. In fact, according to Jurkwoski, 76% of us maintain our own sites. To me, it makes updating so much easier when I have control, so I prefer to maintain it myself.
This brings up another big point-keeping the website current. It’s easy to create a website and then neglect it when other duties seem more pressing. One way to avoid this pitfall is to update your site on a certain day each week. I came up with “Website/wiki Wednesday”. If that’s too often, try updating once a month-set a calendar reminder for the 1st of each month. That always seems to keep me on track!
In thinking about what makes a site stand out over others, I took a tour of many Media Center websites of varying school levels-elementary, middle and high.
Here is my list of things that are universally essential:
1-Basic Media Center Information-SLMS contact info, hours of operation
2-Link to the school’s OPAC
3-Links to the top resources used by patrons
4-Document Library links to Media Center Policies, Goals, Mission Statement, Copyright/Fair Use
5-Reading Promotion Information-AR, Reading Counts, HRRB, Six Flags Read to Succeed, etc…
6-Links to any external SLMS webpages, wikis or blogs connected to the Media Center
7-Pictures of current Media Center Happenings and/or Virtual tour of Media Center
8-Links to interesting or fun sites-authors, book trailers, award lists, suggested book lists, pathfinders, book reviews, etc…
9-Link to Calendar of events or lessons
10- Volunteer Information/Calendar
Finally, should you ditch the traditional website in favor of a wiki or blog? I say why ditch it. The website is a great basic platform for all of your information. If you have a wiki that students or teachers use to communicate with you, simply add a link on the website. The same goes for a blog or external SLMS webpage that you maintain. I make it a point to take my patrons on a tour of the Media Center website during our first class meetings in order to show them where all the essential links are. I begin the navigation from a search engine just like the students would use at home. We locate the school’s website and then the Media Center page link. Once we arrive at our destination, I teach them how to bookmark the site for return visits. Even Kindergarteners can do it!
Advertise your website! Email blasts, school brochures, student agendas, business cards…The more you get your site information out to your patrons, the more they will use it which in turn helps you do your job all that much better!
Jennifer Martin
Jennifer;
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed all the points in your article blog. I agree it is very important to view your web site from your audience perspective and think about how they are going to use it. It needs to have information that will help the students and teachers. I think there should also be useful links on there for the parents as well. For a school that has a high population of ESOL learners you could put more links on there for parents too also learn English such as www.starfall.com or pbskid.org. I think all patrons are important. The SACS committee also calls them stakeholders which would include people in the community surrounding your school. I think it would be good to have a bar tab for the community that would link them to sites such as: job placements, English for second language learners, new books, books of interest, public library information and links, and resources such as Galileo databases. I think it is very important to keep the data bases up to date and have one person that is the media web site manager maintaining this site on a regular bases. I like the suggestions you made to check it every Wednesday or the 1st day of each month. It is very frustrating to an adult when looking up something on a web page and I know it is to a student especially lower grade students. I think it is an important fact to list book award winners and award givers like Six Flags or Pizza Hut. Adding these types of interest will help spur the love of reading. Great job!
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteYou have made several excellent points in your post regarding websites. Just as you mentioned, there are several questions that you must ask yourself before creating a website. That key question being one simple word, ‘why?’. You also mentioned how usually in the beginning of the year the website is fresh and up and coming, but as the year goes on the website does not get update. From my experience, this is completely true. I started a site when I was teaching Kindergarten that I was going to keep update for my parents, however, as the year went on, I forgot to update what was going on. I liked your suggestion of assigning one specific day of the week or month to make changes to the site. You also mentioned several essentials to include within a media center’s website. I particularly liked the idea of including links to interesting or fun author sites.
When I previewed North Elementary website for their Media Center, I particularly liked how there was a section for the schedule and checkout policies. As a parent I find this information very valuable. I think that parents should be able to know the policies within the media center. There is a handbook for school policies, but they do not always include the media center policies. Another fantastic idea that I found on their website was the link for students to request books to be added to the media center. I almost missed it, however, I am sure the media specialist has pointed it out to his students.
Our media center has a Parent Resource Center. These are resources bought with Title 1 funds just for parents to come check out. And its not just study helps and books, we have laptops and CD players (for listening to books on CD). Our parents hardly know it exists. So I would definitely include a video tour of what's available to parents.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post. So many good ideas that I can take from it. I can definitely use the list of what you found in common among the other sites as a checklist for my website. And I love the idea of setting aside a certain day to update it. That's my biggest fear with a website is that I would forget to maintain it and make my school look bad. :(
I loved how you summed up your response by saying that a library web page should be simple and organized with something eye catching. As I looked over several library web pages, many were overwhelming to me. There was so much there, that I didn’t know where to start. They was no organization and outdated links. I know as an educator if I’m overwhelmed, a parent would definitely bypass that page and go to another one. A library’s web page should be fun, informational, and interesting. It should be organized into sections for students, teachers, and parents. It should be creative but not so busy that my brain can’t focus on what I’m doing. It should also have modifications for the disabled. It should include websites to online books, authors, library news, etc. Above all it should contain links that are available. I hate to go to a website and get so excited about finding a resource to only discover that I can’t get to it.
ReplyDeleteI loved your idea of doing a virtual tour of the library. Many parents only visit or get to see their child’s classroom. Having a virtual tour is a great way to display all the wonderful things in your library. Many parents don’t realize how valuable a library can be for their child. This is a great way to show them.
Appreciate your thorough blog post. Building and designing a website, even if the platform has been predetermined by your school, can be a daunting task. I agree with Jurkowski (and you!) that sketching it out ahead of time is important. Much like getting a rough sketch on an instructional calendar or unit will help you prepare the individual lessons and focus on the details, sketching out what your want to include on your website first will assist in creating the appropriate links without overdoing it.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your focus on maintenance as well. Providing your "customers" what they want and need when visiting your site will assure return visits and can make your site a "go-to" source. One surefire way to discourage patron (student / parent / teacher ) use of your website is to provide out of date information and links that no longer work. The schedule suggested you posted (Web& Wiki Wednesday) is a practical and useful tip. Even devoting a small amount of time to keep yours current and also dedicate some time to visiting others, giving you good ideas, will help your site remain fresh and reliable for your visitors.
When I visited the site http://schoollibrarywebsites.wikispaces.com/, it helped me consider the varying needs of elementary, middle and high school levels. This seemed like a good site to visit and gain ideas from similar leveled schools. This would surely be something I did as I take on a role of a new SLMS in the future.
Jennifer, you listed all the important points that a website should have. Since beginning this program I have a different eye when looking at school and media center websites. I was shocked to find some school websites that don’t have a link to their school’s media center and others who do have a link titled media center redirects the student directly to the schools OPAC system. I agree that having a media center website is one of the most important things a teacher-librarian can do to promote their program. You bring up a great point when you discuss the lapse in posting up to date information on the webpage. Having a standard day during the week or monthly is a great way to set a deadline for website submissions and keep information up to date.
ReplyDeleteLong gone are the days of the teacher/media specialist passing out information to their students to give to their parents. Websites are now fulfilling this responsibility, so it is essential to keep websites user friendly, organized, and I love what your blog says about staying up-to-date. Website/wiki Wednesday is a genius idea.
ReplyDeleteYour answer to the question of whether or not websites should be replaced by wiki’s or blogs was perfect. Honestly, I was really pondering the question, until I read your blog. And I had a awe moment, it is not about either/or. But you said it best, “Why ditch it? The website is a great basic platform for all of your information.”
I completely agree that ditching the website altogether is ill-advised, because, as you said, it provides all the basic information your patrons need, which would really be out of place on a blog. It would probably be okay on a wiki, but the nature of blogs don't really lend themselves to that type of information.
ReplyDeletePersonally speaking, I find the media center website to be an overwhelming task. I had a pretty sophisticated teacher website and Edmodo page, which came naturally, but I am completely put off by the task of creating a decent website for my media center. I tend to get caught up in the smaller details, but I must say your list of essential elements is dead-on and will help me stay focused on keeping the site user friendly and uncluttered.