I feel as if the media center webpage should cater to the audience members: students, staff, and community, including, of course, the parents. Almost all of my experience with media centers has been at the elementary level, so I am comfortable considering content for this area.
For the students, there should be links to any online databases for research, such as World Book or Net Trekker, with access to login names and passwords (our SLMS sends it home on paper every semester). Links to websites listing award winning titles and nominees are important, as well as lists of books for summer reading. The parents and students would benefit from seeing a list of AR books and quizzes available at the school's media center. Naturally, if possible, there should also be a link to the library's online catalog so students, parents, and staff members can access the collection from anywhere. Are there magazines available in the media center? Which ones? A listing for these types of items that may not be present in the OPAC would be great, too.
I think that a little personal bio for each media center staff is nice to have, primarily because it makes the media specialist(s) and clerks seem more like real people! I found it interesting that on the Mabry Media Center webpage, I could not find any information on the library staff, not even their names! I feel it should be visible without a patron having to go find the school's staff directory.
For the teachers, I like the idea of lists of professional journals or links to interesting articles being made available. If the teachers would give permission, the media specialist could provide links to individual classroom blogs or webpages.
Finally, in the area of content, the webpage for the media center should have information, updated regularly, on current media center events and programs, including clubs run by the media specialist.
I hate it when I click on a link from a school's home page for the media center, and it's dead! I hate it even more when I can't find a link to the media center from the school's home page. As for aesthetics, the MC webpage should be visually appealing, but not too busy. Of course, the layout should be designed with the audience in mind: big, colorful graphics for elementary school; fewer, more mature, graphics for high school. Think of it like a presentation, and use good visual design tips similar to those given to us by Dr. Bennett. I can't stand going to a webpage with menus and links all over the place: across the top, down each side, etc. I like simplicity, personally. This media center website for an elementary school near me has a great design:
http://mediacenter.cobbk12.org/common/welcome.jsp;jsessionid=CF4DAE7B10E976E41F288819A1F9B8A1?site=162
As for websites going Web 2.0? I like the idea of blogs, but entries ought to be approved by MC staff before published. I'm still not too sure about wikis, so I'll say no to that for now. However, I think it is important to have students feel as if they are part of the school, and the SLMS allowing for comments on books or other relevant topics through blog entries are a fantastic way to include everyone.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I totally agree with all that you said Lisa! When I visit a MC webpage I like to see that it is very user friendly. So many sites that I visited had so much information that I was overwhelmed and did not know where to start looking. When I visit a site, I like to see information that is useful and up to date. I believe that a MC webpage needs to be a place that the students visit whether they are at home or at school. I also believe that the parents need to be aware about what information is located on the MC site. If the information was useful then the students would use it more as a resource.
ReplyDeleteI am particularly interested in primary media center sites because I will be in a primary media center. I visited many sites, but I found many to be very busy and hard to navigate. I found the follow site to have a lot of useful information, but it there was so much on the site that is seem overwhelming to look at and find different things.
http://www.boones.wlwv.k12.or.us/PETZELJ/boones_ferry_lmc2.htm
I feel that if each section would have been a button with a seperate page for each button that it would have been more navigatable.
I too feel that there should be a little information about the staff of the MC. It just makes it feel more personable to have a little insight into the background of the staff.
I feel that the websites going 2.0 as a good thing. Technology is all around us and I feel that it sparks the interest of the students and helps them engage more.
I have to admit that I am a huge fan of wikis. Although I have personally done very little with wikis, I have to admit that I am also a huge fan of all of the potential uses. Sabrina, I thought your suggestions to utilize wikis to compile a digital Professional Collection as well as posting student porfolios were great! One of the features that excite me the most is that you can give teachers contributor rights so that they post information and links directly to the wiki. This feature helps the wiki to serve a collaborative function for media specialists. Despite there being concern that just about anyone can edit a wiki, the ability to contribute information and in turn collaborate at any hour of the day far outweigh the concern in my opinion. Working as the wiki facilitator, the media specialist can minimize this concern by monitoring and editing inappropriate or inaccurate information through a form of digital weeding of materials. This would help to increasing the amount of cyber collaboration between the teacher and media specialist while also managing the information posted within the wiki.
ReplyDeleteI agree in the fact that a Media Center's webpage needs to be user friendly. The webpage should not be geared to just one type of audience, but instead should be geared to the parents, teachers, students and community members. In a way, the media specialist could create links for parents, teachers and students that will take them directly to a page created just for them. This page will have information they need such as upcoming events, lists of AR books, links to online databases, etc.
ReplyDeleteI personally like the idea of having a blog on the media center's webpage. My media specialist started one this year and the response to the blog is very positive. I can't even begin to count the number of times that a parent has made a positive comment about how useful the blog has been to them. Hearing these positive responses has made me understand more about the usefulness of a blog in a school setting.
Having a personal bio about the media center's staff on the webpage is a great idea. I have also had several experiences where I was unable to find the names of the media center's staff. I know when I was trying to contact different media specialists about some questions I had, there were several sites that did not list their e-mail addresses. I had to search through the county's website to find the e-mail address that I was looking for. It would have been so much easier if the e-mail address was on the site.
We can definitely learn from all the websites out there what we would like on our own webpage and what we wouldn't. I like the idea of adding in a blog to the webpage. Before I make a decision about including a wiki, I would like to practice using them so that I can become more comfortable with them. So, hopefully I will be able to use them on webpages.
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your thoughts. For other projects that I have had during the media program, specifically my handbook, I have access many school library web pages. One of the most frustrating things I found was "Page Not Found" to pop up, or one of the best was a blanket statement that read, "The media is closed". I am assuming that the statement was placed up during summer holidays and not taken down. I my opinion, the summer is one of the most important time a media center web page should be up and running; that way parents can have idea for their children during the long breaks. For that reason, I agree that that a link to renaissance reader to list AR titles would be helpful.
One the page is created I think that like you said it needs to stay novel. The more a web page is visit, the more popular it is considered. I think that it is important to note that if you do not frequently change the content and add new information, patrons will reduce the number of times they visit it.
I like your example. I think it is age appropriate to the grade levels of elementary school. My favorite aspect is where you can view the AR test by LEVEL. I think that is important for parents and students to see.