The Media Center’s web page can be an essential part to the
Media Centers success. When a media
specialist begins to design a web page there are many things and resources to
consider. I have made a list of basic items that should be included and some
that should not. I correlated this list of
personal opinions from reviewing other schools webpages and my experiences
while on these pages.
Top 5 “Basics” for Media Center Web Page
1.
Housekeeping items – Hours, staff, upcoming
events, etc.
2.
Procedures
3.
Link to School’s look up/check out system
4.
School specific Resources and Reference
materials
5.
Communication area such as an email or drop box.
Top 5 “No No’s” for Media Center Web Page
1.
Website not up to date
2.
Error message or no page when a link is clicked
on
3.
Irrelevant resources - grade appropriate
4.
Overwhelming or not user family structure
5.
Information not related to the Media Center
Students, teachers, and parents, can become easily frustrated
when a schools media center webpage is not accurate, not up-to-date, or too “busy”
to locate information. Being a first
year media specialist I was clueless about what the students and teachers
wanted on “their” media center webpage. I
surveyed the teachers and questioned random students and found out exactly what
I needed to know. The answer I received the
most was, “I would like everything to be in one place and easy to find”. I began to research ways to organize and structure
a web page to meet those needs and I came across a program called Symbaloo. I was able to find someone in my county that
was familiar with creating Symbaloo’s so I quickly learned and created one for
my school. I have received very
rewarding comments about our Media Center web page and have noticed an
increased use of the site. Check it out!
McEver Arts
Academy Media Center
I was also able to include the school symbaloo on the media
centers Destiny cataloging front page.
The Destiny cataloging page also has a short cut added throughout our
network so that it appears on every computers desktop when the students or
teachers log on.
This being on the desktop of every computer in the school
has been extremely efficient and used on a daily basis in the classroom. Symbaloo has proven to be a wonderful
resource for our school and a great addition to our media center web page.
When designing a webpage such as a schools media center page
for public use I do not feel a blog or wiki would be very appropriate. Accurate information needs to be provided for
these types of pages with information that is current and useful. Given public access can change the entire
purpose of the page or its direction.
With the new technologies of today, web pages do not have to be the same
boring thing. There are so many new and
fun ideas to be incorporated and constructed.
Therefore it is imperative to have the right person for the job when it
comes to creating a successful web page.
I think it’s very important for a school’s website to provide unique elements to the curriculum and details. In addition to your great points, I feel that initially there must be some type of conversation had to make clear what students, teacher and other patrons are expecting to see and/or want added to the website. This will give the website manager some direction and idea to do a better job with content. The “basics” that you have outlined are also agreeable…those are a must for any schools website. I can also appreciate the point you made about what not to do on a webpage. Great post ☺
ReplyDeleteShanda: I love the Symbaloo page!! It is so user friendly. I like it because it is more kid and user friendly. It really draws attention to detail and pictures that catch the kids visual perspective. It reminds me of the desktop they see on the computers in my room. Especially user friendly for the kindergartners and 1st graders. They first search for the pictures that they are familiar with to log into a web site. Because of their ability to just beginning to learn to read I think Symbaloo is a great tool for any Media web site. I agree with you that blogs and wikis would not be good for the main media center web site. Although I think it would be good to have a link that states blogs or wikis so parents, teachers and students can access it and use it. Maybe start like a book of the week blog for the gifted kids and then later for each grade level. I also think there should be one person managing the media web page and keeping it up to date and all links working. This will help with consistency.
ReplyDeleteWow! Great job on your blog! I am a new media specialist and the one before me never created a page on our school website. I have been so busy with staying afloat that I have made myself a promise to create a page over the summer. I appreciate the information and app you provided as it gives me a start to creating my own. In our school district (Atlanta Public) the media specialist are required to be the “Communication Ambassador” for the school which means that we are responsible for tweeting, face booking, and sharing all of the upcoming events going on at the school with the public and district. Once I complete the library page I think our school website will be complete. The one thing I would like to add in addition to the things you stated was a link of programs offered in the library link the book club, Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl participants, and special reading guest that come to the school.
ReplyDeleteShanda Schaefer (Team 7),
ReplyDeleteUpon reading your list of do’s and don’ts of a LMC webpage, I immediate could relate to the No’s No’s list! In MEDT 6461, we have to find a media specialist to interview to write a paper on. I would have interviewed my own at my school, but I wanted to find another one who seemed genuinely happy about their job. My media specialist only talks about doing inventory. Anyway, in my research to find another media specialist to interview in my county, I decided to look on each school’s webpage to see which had the most up-to-date webpage, which had different elements such as scrolling pictures or a list of upcoming events etc. I am sad to announce that most of the media center sections of the webpages were very out of date, contained broken links and error messages. Having said that, it just justifies just how important it is to keep the website up to date!
I think that surveying your teachers and staff to find out exactly what they wanted on the webpage was an excellent idea! I also think that your webpage is off to a great start! I like that that the symbaloo enables you to embed the logos of the different resources instead of just a list of websites. That alone will spark visitor’s interest right away when they visit the webpage! I will end in agreeing with you about having to have the right person to create a webpage for a school LMC. I can also feel your passion for your job through reading your passage and I definitely think that you were just the person/presence your school needed to bring life back into the media center!
P.S. When I become a media specialist, I am definitely going to keep symbaloo in mind when constructing the LMC webpage. I think it just does a perfect a job of housing and displaying lots of resources together in one place.
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ReplyDeleteThe blog post which you provided is of particular interest to me because you are a first year media specialist. I really like how you provided us with a tool to make the website and the final product. Asking the teachers and students what they would like to see housed on the media center website is a good idea. If your website contains resources that are not of interest the website will not be frequently visited. My most important thing to keep up will be to make sure site is current and up-to-date. This can be a problem with any website and is a quick way to lose interest from teachers and students. Thank you for giving me ideas on how to begin the website.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to your library’s web page. I enjoyed viewing it and felt that it was easy to maneuver. You are the second person to mention the program symbaloo so I decided to see what it was about. I loved it. It is real easy to start and work through, and I feel that it is something that I can incorporate into my school. As I read through several blogs, the common theme was keeping webpages organized, updated, and not too busy. I agree with this. Too many times we try to make things pretty and cute and in reality we make things hard to read and we have to muster through all the busyness. Webpages must be updated. We are providing resources for teachers, students, parents, and the public. It is our responsibility to ensure that they are receiving up to date information. We have to make our pages user friendly. We can’t have stuff scattered all throughout our page with no rhyme or reason and expect people to want to use it. We need to have clear descriptions of what each link entails, and we must make sure that links are easy to navigate through. We have the means to provide our students with so many resources, if we just ensure that they are organized and up to date.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm going to try this again. This is my third attempt to try an respond to your post! *Thumbs down* for the Blogger app for iPad!!!!!! Anyway, I agree that the media center's website aids in the success of the overall space. Just like wikis, it's imperative to keep them up-to-date. My district uses MS Frontpage to create and maintain our individual pages. In my opinion, it's kind of bland compared to other applications that could be used for design, such as Weebly. One of my long-term goals is to create a resourceful Weebly site for students, teachers and parents to use. I wan't people to know what awesome things we're doing in the media center; great way to advocate! At my school, it's actually a requirement for the teachers to have a Weebly site up. Since I'm still adjusting to my new role, I haven't had a chance to go all out and create the amazing site that I would like; however, when I get settled, look out! :)
ReplyDeleteI love Symbaloo! There are so many great tools out there to incorporate into whatever platform your library chooses to use. Your list of basics was very concise and not overwhelming. The Media Center page link was awesome the format was clean and easy to navigate and of course the symbaloo was awesome. I am not sure how other school do things but I work at a middle school and I could see the up keep and design of the webpage being done by a student during extended learning time or club time. I think this would be a great experience for students to have a part in the web page. Great job!
ReplyDelete