The library website is one of the most important features of the library. In addition to advertising what the library does and where it is; it allows users to perform many functions such as seaching the catalogue, placing holds, renewing items, downloading eBooks, requesting inter-library loans, searching online resources and requsting online help.
The use of social networking tools incorporated into the webpage enables a much more interaction between the library and the community.
The library 2.0 online world conference October 3-5 2012 had some great interactive sessions about how we can make our library more interactive. It included educational, public, academic and special library environments. Presentations are archived on the following website
http://www.library20.com/page/2-012-conference
1. Some criteria for effective library website design
Promotion and marketing
- The library website is the gateway to the libraries resources
- It should act as a marketing tool to promote resources, events, services, popular materials and technology
- It needs to be able to draw attention to specific items of interest to users
Segmentation
- Parts of the website need to be able to be customised to target specific audience types or ages
Interactive
- The webpage should allow for interaction with the community
- Conversations between the library and users should be transparent
- It should allow for feedback
Visual aesthetics
- The webpage should not just be words and links
- It should have a combination of graphics, multi-media and links to help direct the user to events and showcased information
Searchability and browsability
- The webpage needs to be able to be navigated in various ways
- Navigation bars, search boxes, menus need to be consistent on every page of the website
Mobile friendly
- The library webpage and catalogue should be able to be used on mobile devices
Online Help
- There should be some type of online help
- Somewhere that the user knows they can interact with a librarian
- The webpage needs to be user friendly
- It needs to be geared to the community it serves, not to the librarain designing it
http://yprl.vic.gov.au/
Promotion and marketing
The Yarra Plenty website has links to ther services, online resources, the catalogue and what's on in the library. It promotes new titles well with the use of images. Book reviews by staff members are also located in a prime position on the homepage and have accompanying images to highlight them. Library news is promoted by the use of rotating headlines on a slideshow. This keeps the page looking interesting and draws attention to the news the library want to showcase. Recent comments from borrowers on book reviews are also highlighted. This keeps the page looking refreshed because of the social interaction taking place in the background.
Segmentation
The website is not customised to cater for different audiences. The only thing different on children's Summer Reading Club page is a picture that is geared to that age group. The local history, lifelong learning and subject guide pages (just to mention a few) are very boring with just the use of text. As mentioned, the homepage is aesthetically pleasing but as the user drills down into the website it can become quite boring.
Interactive
The website itself has little interactivity. Four of the links claim to lead to blogs; Local history blog, Genealogy blog, Youth blog and Summer reading program blog, but are in fact, not blogs but static template page in which a blog post from another site has beed added. The pages do not allow for any comments to be posted on them. I am aware through a search of blogger that a Local history blog is maintained by the Local history Librarian that allows comments, but it is not linked anywhere on the Yarra Plenty webpage. There are links to a Yarra Plenty facebook page and a Yarra Plenty Twitter account on the website that allow community interaction, and also a Youth facebook page (if you can find it as you have to drill down three pages to access it. The library catalogue however does allow book reviews to be written by the community. A more prominent link to the youth facebook page could improve the interactivity between the library and youth. More interactivity of the pages claimed to be blogs would also help community interaction.
Visual aesthetics
As mentioned under the promotion heading, the website uses images and text to promote new books and book reviews by staff members. Library news is also promoted by the use of rotating headlines with accompanying images on a slideshow. This keeps the page looking interesting and draws attention to the news they want to showcase.
Searchability and browsability
The website, library catalogue and events calendar can all be searched seperately, however there is no single search function to search all at once. There is also an advanced search function. The search box is embedded into the website template and appears on all pages of the website. There is no federated search function when searching the online resources.
Mobile friendly
The Yarra Plenty library catalogue can be downloaded into an iphone, ipad or android phone. The mobile app allows the user to search the catalogue, place holds and manage their account. This is a great addition to the website as the community embraced mobile technology..It also gives a sense that the library is available every where 24/7. I also like the use of QR codes beside the moble app download. Clever use of web 2.0 technologies to provide useful information to community members.
Online help
Online help is offered via an Email a librarian a librarian link on the homepage, an Ask a question link which is 1 click down, or a Site feedback link which is 2 clicks down on the webpage. All links lead to forms to fill out. From the Ask A Question link there is another link to Homework help This leads to an external homework help service. There are no details of the person you are contacting on any of the forms, or the time frame of receiving a response. It is very confusing as to what link the user should be using. How does a user distinguish betwenn Ask a librarian or Ask a question? There is also another link to Contact us which leads to list of general phone numbers. There are no names on the list to personalise the users experience when calling. There are also no phone numbers for any of the 8 branch libraries. Contact details for the branch libraries are located under the link Hours and locations and locations This also links to Google maps where the locations are pinpointed. Unless the user knows specifically where each link leads to they could easily miss the contact details they are looking for. Web 2.0 techologies could be used to enhance the online referecne services offered. IM, SMS services, chat, Twitter for quick reference enquiries are all ways to enhance interaction between the library and it's community.
User friendly
Whilst the home page of the website is appealing with the combination of graphics and rotating images drawing the eye to new books and what's on in the library; subsequent pages lack the appeal of the first page. The use of a template throughout the site is consistant, along with the funtionality of the navigation and seach functions. The online help is very confusing and lacks a feeling of "the personal touch".
I am surprised at the lack of interactiveness of the site, allowing little room for the community to communicate with library staff. There are ways that the community can comment (through forms and sending and email) but the website takes little advantage of the interactiveness of social media tools. The pages that are called "blogs" are in fact not. They have taken blog post from other sites and embedded them in a static template that does not allow comments. The language used on some of the headings is not really user friendly, and more geared to "library jargon" rather than the end user. Comments on web 2.0 tools can be monitored before they are posted live; this may be a way to compromise but still allow more community interaction.
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