When creating a web page for the library media center, it is important to keep your goals in the forefront. The library website is the point of access to electronic resources the library subscribes to or owns, the way to find print resources; and a place to share news, information, policies and other documents (Jurkowski, 2010). The website can be used as a model of communication for your community. Some media specialists may use web pages, Wikis, blogs or other formats to create a format for a media center page. Although, new technology to create media pages is available, a media specialist should choose one that works best in their situation. Some school districts determine which format should be used. There are costly programs and free programs. According to Jurkowski, the tool itself is not what's important, what important is how you use the tool (2010).
Some important things to remember when creating your site are:
- Make sure the web site is prominently featured or linked from the school site.
- Convince teachers to link to the media center site from their classroom web pages
- Feature your site URL on all handouts, policy manuals, and other documents.
- Create a template files for teachers to use on their handouts that include the media centers URL.
- Record your URL on your voicemail message suggesting that the caller may find the answer to their question online.
- Create a business card with your URL.
- Create a section on the website that lists important programs to support the curriculum along with their channels.
- To help families and communities, list popular media technologies that are popular such as laptops and camcorders.
- Offer suggestions and reviews of popular vacation destinations.
You want to encourage stakeholders to come to your site often by creating interesting links to sites such as homework help, Destiny and databases.
You have many options to include when creating your site, but it should include key points such as the school's mailing address, librarian email address and phone number, media center employees, the hours of operation, overdue/lost book policy, reading lists, educational videos and games, showcase new materials and also include the date the website was last updated. You can also opt to post your schedule and have a sign up sheet for teachers and volunteers. Your page can be used to share your future goals, dreams and current topics such as reading bowl information or author visit. One feature I would like to implement from a site I visited is a teacher's recommendation and book review. The kids will be motivated to read a book a teacher has read and recommends!
Since the media center is a central part of the school, the site is an essential component of the media center. It will be used frequently by parents, students, teachers and administrators.You should integrate images to add color, build animations to express complex concepts, use sound to communicate with emotions, and use video to tell a story (Warlick, 2005). When developing your site, make it stand out!
References
Jurkowski, O. (2010). Technology and the School Library. The Scarecrow Press, Plymouth, UK.
Warlick, D. (2005). Retrieved October 15, 2011 from http://aasl.metapress.com/content/gk552k173l82j1l0/.
Wow Lisa!
ReplyDeleteWhen I need to know what to put on my site to make it stand out...I'll check back here:)
You were very thorough in your examples...everything from URLs being recorded on voice mails to printing the URL at the base of documents.
I do think that thorough coverage of the media center webpage makes it more successful...mentioning/showing/explaining it at faculty meetings, showing it to department chairs (especially pointing out the specific teacher corner of the website that contains department-specific links and resources), as well as placing bulletin boards with QR codes that can be scanned with SMARTphones.
By focusing on as much marketing as possible in addition to putting as much relevant info on the site, the site will start to flourish.
Thanks again for your post:)
Yours is the second article I have read that emphasizes the need to include contact information on the page. This is one of those things that seems to simple, yet many pages make it difficult to find their “contact us” link or they simply do not have one at all. Sometimes an FAQs page just is not enough. Also, a user may need to ask a question that he or she does not want to post to a public page. There should be an e-mail address for users to contact the Web master.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your bulleted list of suggestions for making a library site more interesting and informative. I am going to ask the teachers at my school to link to the media center Web page on their blogs! Book reviews are a great draw; kids have asked me what book they should read next, and I send them right to my book reviews. I’m all for keeping it simple, but I also like colors, graphics, and user input.
Thank you for your post.
Sue Thach
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the information that you found on creating websites for Media Centers. The bulleted list that you provided will be very helpful with the group assignment that we have to do next for Dr. OPC. Also, when I was viewing some of the MC orientations for this class, I saw one person have a place for suggesting materials to be ordered for the Media Center. I feel that the website will be a great place to have this link and maybe can be added to the list that you have.
The suggestions about adding the website address on business cards, voicemails, etc. are least that I will take back to my mentor. It is important that we let everybody know that we are out here and what we are doing because if they don't see us they will assume that we are doing nothing.
Thanks for sharing,
Cynthia
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteYou have presented a fantastic checklist of items to be covered when creating a media center webpage. I think the media center is the heart of learning and the suggestions you gave about creating a list of information that supports the curriculum is exactly what the media center should be doing. You also gave several great suggestions about making your website stand out by including different types of images, animation, sound, and video. We will definitely refer to this list you created when we begin working on our project for Dr. C.
Great post! Thanks :)
Virginia
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI think your post starts off by hitting a key point. You need a clearly defined goal for a media center webpage. If not, it just becomes a cluttered webpage filled with links and a hodge-podge of resources. I love the idea of creating business cards that contain the media center URL. Another great tip you shared was to include teacher reviews on the page. I think this is a great idea. It helps the students see that their teachers value reading as well as being exposed to genres and topics that they might not be familiar with.
Michelle