Blog 3: MC web pages - Erin Carr

In today’s society, you would be hard pressed to find a school media center that did not have some type of webpage.  Though all sites are not created equal, there is a lot of good information to be found. 

When creating a media center web page, the first thing to consider is your goals.  What do you want to convey to those who will view your page?

..we must challenge ourselves to step back and examine the overreaching goals of our job— assisting students to become successful learners as well as supporting teachers in their efforts to create and craft meaningful learning experiences for their students—and to do this within the context of a contemporary information environment. Keep your program goals front and center when planning your Web site” (Warlick, 2005).

Next, identify your target audience. Your webpage needs to be tailored to this age group.  “A library Web page for a third grader will be much different than that for a high school student” (Jurkowski, 2010).  I have always worked in the elementary setting, so that is how my brain works.  I know my students like bright colors and catchy themes.  They also like to be able to click familiar icons to redirect them to a new webpage.  I have noted that even students who are non-readers can navigate through a familiar webpage.  For me, it will be very important to keep my pages simply and to the point, yet give enough information.  Even in an elementary school, I could see a need for a special place for PreK-2 students and another from 3-5 as the needs of primary and elementary students are very different.  If you audience include visually impaired or hearing impaired students, this also needs to be taking into consideration when creating the page. 

The final think that take a great deal of consideration is your layout and content.  Before you start designing your page, create a plan.  Think about the most important things for your students and how you want those things presented to them.  I have a business degree and some acronym we often used was K.I.S.S. (keep it simple (stupid)).  I think as we become media specialists (or continue to work on our media pages), we need to keep this in mind.  If a student looks at your page and is overwhelmed, are they really going to keep looking? Probably not.

So, let’s talk about some Do’s and Don’ts of creating your webpage:

DO:

1.      Keep your audience in mind

2.      Preplan

3.      Pick an attractive color scheme and make you the text is readable with those colors. Remember that you may have colorblind students who need to navigate the page.

4.      Use bullet points

5.      Include your mission and vision as well as policies and procedures

6.      Use photographs. Kids love seeing themselves and their friends (make sure you have permission to photograph the children).

7.      Include the pictures and names of all people working in the media center so students will know who they are looking for

8.      Add book reviews/recommendations

9.      Let students know what is going on/upcoming (maybe a calendar)

10.  Let student know when new books/materials arrive

DON’T

1.      Don’t overwhelm your students

2.      Don’t write text in paragraph form; your students would rather read a book, not your website

3.      Don’t use a color scheme that is hard to see

4.      Don’t’ use files that are so big it takes your page forever to load

5.      Don’t use red text to call attention to important items, use bold text

6.      Don’t use plug-ins and widgets that may cause the page not to run.

These do’s and don’ts are solely my opinion.  I know I cannot stand when I get onto a website I cannot navigate.  Before making your site public, use it yourself, have a few students test it out and give you feedback. Put yourself in your student’s shoes and make it work.  Have fun with it, but remember its purpose.

As far as the content you are adding to your page, again remember your audience.  If you school has never had a functioning media web page or your students are unfamiliar with navigating a page, start small.  Get students familiar with the content and then add to it.  Here are some of the top things I think a media web page should have:

o   LMS contact information

o   Media center vision/mission

o   Media center policies and procedures

o   Media center hours

o   Photos

o   Links to:

ü  OPAC

ü  Age appropriate search engines

ü  Book reviews

ü  Dictionary/thesaurus

o   A special section for teachers that includes additional links:

ü  Information on research models and links

ü  Links to free Web 2.0 tools

o   A special section for parents

ü  Information on how to help a struggling reader

ü  Research tips

ü  Links to virtual teaching sites (Khan academy)

Though these are just a few suggestions, I think it is a good start. I think it is super important to frequently evaluate you page as well. It may be a good idea to include a hit counter that way you will know if your page is being used and how often.

            Aside from your standard Web pages, the media center could choose to use a Wiki or blog.  It appears that tons of schools are doing it, just do a google search and you can find many examples. It seems as though the Web 2.0 tools are not replacing the traditional web site, but serving as a supplement. I think these tools are great because they offer students a chance to interact where a web site tends to be very one sided. Wikis and blogs have many positives. They are free, you can post text and images just like you can in a regular webpage, and content is dated (which makes you accountable for keeping it up to date).  There are many positive benefits to Wikis and blogs, but you also have to feel comfortable using them.

Here are a couple of examples of media center webpages that I like:

-          Creekview HS: Canton, GA

o   This school has a website through the school that is very simple: http://www.cherokee.k12.ga.us/Schools/creekview-hs/media_center/default.aspx

And it also has its own google site: https://sites.google.com/site/theunquietlibrary/

-          Barrow Elementary: Athens, GA

o   Nice clean layout. May have too much info for some students, but it is very clean and nice: http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/webpages/aplemmons/

o   They also have a blog: http://barrowmediacenter.wordpress.com/

References

Baumbach, D, Brewer, S, Renfroe, M. (2004, Septe

mber). What should be on a school library web page? Learning and Leading with Technology. Volume 32: Number 1. Retrieved February 27, 2013 from http://www.motherofgeeks.com/SLMC%20website%20article.pdf

Jurkowski, O. (2010). Technology and the school library: A comprehensive guide for media specialists and other educators (revised ed.). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

Walbert, D. (n.d.).   Best practices in school library website design. K-12 Teaching and Learning: From the UNC School of Education. Retrieved February 27, 2013 from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/969

Warlick, D. (2005). Building web sites that work for your media center.  Knowledge Quest. Volume 33: Number 3. Retrieved February 27, 2013 from http://medt7477spring2013.weebly.com/uploads/7/5/8/9/7589068/warlick_lmc_websites.pdf