While surfing the net, a person can interact with hundreds of web pages. Some of them are more memorable than others. Some of them provide useful services. Some of them offfer entertainment. A website that makes you want to come back to it is one that is doing it's job.
There are many media center web pages to visit on the web. The thing to remember when designing a good web page is you want it to help you do your job. The more things that your site can provide for your students and staff, the less things they will need you to find for them.
Good websites need to be well organized, and visually attractive. They need to have easily scannable text and clear, working links. One of the biggest pet peeves of people is to click on a link after link only to see that they are no longer working. These are all important things to keep in mind when designing a web page, but I am even more interested in what makes good content for a media center website.
Some of the best ideas I found on strong websites were things like:
- Identify a problem and use the website to help you solve it
- Pictures really are worth a million words
- Having links to sites that really interest students like Book Flix, Brain Pop, etc
- Having a "wish list" type of corner to let people know what your dream media center would be
- Using social media to promote your media center, (if you haven't checked out "The Unquiet Library", definately do so!)
- Have a section for teachers with all media resources to support each grade level's standards (This will be very helpful as new standards are put into place)
There are so many ways to make a website that will make people excited about your media center. The most important things to remember are to make your web page reflect your media center, think about your audience and address their needs, and let your web page do as much for you as possible.
So, the first thing that I checked out after reading your blog was t The Unquiet Library…Thank You! I honestly had never seen a schools website look so captivating. I liked the fact that the first thing that I saw was “Happy, Engaged Students”. My first reaction was, finally an exciting media specialist. I find that most media specialist that I meet only do what’s required, or barely step out the box. This website made me feel as if there might be a place for me in education. The site was very professional and it targeted is “consumer” well. Julie, I really enjoyed reading your blog and I appreciate that you were able to relate this to something that I am familiar with; which is running a business. In doing so, I never operated my business without a business card and user friendly website. In the past I have always spent a lot of money on both. I haven’t seen many teachers do the same in education, so it’s inspiring to see it being done. At the end of the day, a media centers website it a reflection of its C.E.O. a.k.a. Media Specialist.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very important to realize that our students often know more about technology and use it on a daily basis. I am glad you pointed that out. That idea is important to keep in mind when developing a website. You are absolutely right when you say “A website that makes you want to come back to it is one that is doing it's job.” It is interesting to think that a website for a media center is literally being judged by its cover, something we often encourage our students not to do with books. With the millions of choices of websites out there, it is important to somehow create a webpage that is going to encourage students to want to visit it on a regular basis. You list “best ideas” is great too, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI too went and looked at The Unquiet Library website. It is a very fun place. I like the blog format for a website. I think it is important for a website to be user friendly. If patrons have a good expierence at your site they will come back. The media specialist I used to work with as a parapro was friends with Buffy Hamiltion. She often tried to pattern things we did in our media center after things Buffy told her about. The webstite included. It was a fun place to visit as well. Here is the link to her current media center blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://creightonblog.typepad.com/addison-media-center/
I think this is a great example of letting your website help you do your job.
Thank you so much for taking a different view on the media center web page blog. I enjoyed your stance on the fact that the students in today’s classrooms are very different than even those in our classrooms 5 years ago. Students and teachers alike each expect web pages to be filled with useful information and links that HELPS them to get where they need to go or want to know. Your point about the fact that web pages are used to help media specialists to do THEIR job is a great point. The more you can provide for students and teachers through the webpage, the less time you have to spend helping them in the media center. If you have a useful, helpful, interactive webpage, you are more likely to have a more smoothly run media center and can spend time teaching and assisting students. Thank you for including “important website links” in your list of bulleted points to consider when creating your webpage. I think that links such as the ones you included are important to have on any media center web page. You also might want to consider adding a link to the local public library. My media specialist’s web site includes this information and I, as well as my students, have found it to be very helpful. Our public library system has SO MANY helpful resources that our students use almost daily. Having a link to this ensures a collaborative relationship between school media centers and the public library system.
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