The Librarian in the Digital Age

I believe that in this digital age it is important for a library to have a webpage. It is the role of the library to help users access information. More and more of the information that students are accessing is online and students are becoming more interested in accessing information 24/7. In order to keep up with the needs and interests of the students, a library website is necessary. I don’t feel that a library, acting as the hub of the school, can do without one. A good website will be designed with its users in mind. If the school is an elementary school, more kid friendly graphics should be used. If the school is a high school the design and content on the site can be more sophisticated. 

Based on the sites I have viewed, the most important elements that a library website needs to include are: access to the school’s catalogue, access to the online resources the school has purchased, information about the library such as hours, staffing, school mission, etc, and an interactive blog where news and information related to the library and the school can be posted. Another common feature is a page related to literature and authors, such as recommended reading lists, award winners, readalikes, links to author websites, book trailers, etc. Another important page is a parent information page which contains information and resources for parents and how they can support their children. Also some sites had a page where students and teachers can find links to online resources and activities on the web, often grouped according to grade. A page showcasing some of the collaborative projects being done in the library would also promote the library’s image and some of this was evident on these sites.

Because I am not a TL I have not created a website for a library. However, I have created one for my grade one class. I used Weebly and I would highly recommend it. Several of the teachers in my school are using it now. One of our grade seven teachers even has all of his students running their own webpages through his Weebly account (this is a feature on the educator account). He has them blog, submit assignments, etc all on their websites. He can manage them all through his account and it is all free. Creating the website was extremely time consuming to start and it still can take up a fair bit of time, depending on what I am doing with it, but it is manageable. I think setting up a library website would be an enormous amount of work (especially at the start) but it would be worth it. When I need to develop one I am going to set myself manageable goals and each year add to it. The library website, as I envision it, like Rome, would not be built in a day. It would be nice if there was a website made by someone in our district for students where students can access online resources on the web that we link to on our webpages. It would be great if teachers all shared their favourite online resources that they have their students use so that it could be put in one central place for all to access. But to start I would just put the essentials on first, and then gradually add to it as time allows.