When I started classes at the University of Arizona, I started looking for libraries where I might end up at that offered programs and services that I would like to be a part of, sort of a dream-job search. Of course most of my initial impressions are based on information they had on their websites and how it was presented there. As I have been looking at web design I started to realize how this could also influence users to value or undervalue a library. For many this is their first impression of the library and they need to make it count. What surprised me most is that although these libraries offer great programs and services, there are some interesting strengths and weaknesses that become more obvious as I look at these sites for format rather than content.
Lansing Public Library, Lansing Illinois
Initial view of this site may seem plain and simple but that is what adds to the value of this site. There are not too many distracting features and the menu offers extended dropdown categories. Each of the pages features the same border, background and header menu, which makes it easier to find when navigating the site. What I like best about this library website is that it has well-developed instructions for first-time users as well as direct links for more experienced users. An example of this is under the Borrower Account menu where a user can renew his/her items. One link gives a good explanation of how to renew items and the other lets the more experienced user go straight to the task and renew his/her items. I especially appreciated the dropdown menu - Search for Books/Articles & More. It breaks down the search for more specific results so a user can find exactly the type of materials s/he might need – books, articles and discussion guides. This site’s homepage features the various blogs available, which let’s the user find information directed to their age group and interest. By breaking menus down into more specific user groups it is easier to navigate. The more I explored this site I started to notice what I feel are some weaknesses. There are no images on this site, other than the image of the library in the header. Also, although it well organized and easy to navigate, there is little interactivity for users on this site. It is the presentation of information only.
St. Joseph County Public Library, South Bend, Indiana
This library offers another clean homepage with their menu in descending alphabetical order. While I think grouping like items into a drop down menu feature could simplify the menu a little, I think that the site offers a basic easy to use format. I clicked on the ‘events’ icon at the bottom of the page, which provide a document type list of everything happening for the month. The user also has the option of viewing this information in a calendar format. This sets events into a timetable for each day’s events and when the user hovers the mouse pointer over an item a small pop-up window offers extended information regarding that event. This is a timesaving feature since the user doesn’t have to click each item and then go back each time they want more information. All the pages feature the same header menu option, which takes them back to the main page or other areas of the site, with the exception of the teen section of the site, though this too has a ‘home’ link back to the main page. There are nearly no images on this site either and few have proper ‘alt’ tag information. The ‘Subject Guides’ link does take the user to a page that is similar in format to Wikipedia. The ‘Kids’ Place’ page does have a series of images on a Flash rotation that feature the children’s areas of the local libraries. This would be a great feature for other parts of the menu too. They could feature book covers or other sections of the library to advertise resources, or pictures of library staff to familiarize users with those they will meet at the library. St. Joseph’s has a great video on YouTube. I was surprised to see that it was featured on their website also.
These first two sites featured the popular white background that I saw on so many of the commercial sites in class. I have been noticing it more and more. It really makes a difference on how the other colors used on a site affects the contrast and …busyness of a site.
Denver Public Library Teen Site -Evolver, Denver Colorado
I chose this third site because I thought that it was a fun teen site and presents a colorful and organized format for teen users. Most of the pages on this web site use the same format changing only the color of the background and contrasting pattern. On the left hand menu when the user scrolls over the link an information bubble extends out and gives more details about the link. This menu is constant on most of the pages, as is the general information links at the top of the page. When one of the links on the main menu is chosen a submenu comes up on the right hand side. When the user scrolls over those several change to short comments or information. It makes a much more interesting menu for teens. The links to reviews of different media each offer scrolling images of movie posters, book covers, and album covers respectively, along with links to other sites and information on what is available at the library. I also noticed that once a user selects from the menu (and subsequent submenu) the page become a simple gray background, more like the other sites previously reviewed. This site offers much more interest and interactivity for the user without being overwhelmingly busy.
I think one of the things that I am realizing is the difference I need to make in seeing a website as a user versus seeing a site as a librarian. The first two sites while easy to navigate, do not offer much interactivity, but I went to them because I know that the content they offer is valuable. A user may never make that connection if they aren’t engaged by what they see on the site. The third site I chose is very audience-oriented. The colors are interesting and engaging but when the user gets to the content the format is presented simply with minimal but well used images to maintain the fun of the site. If I were to work for one of these libraries I think that I am learning how to better present the website for a more engaging experience for users, though they have already organized the information well.
September 20, 2008
September 17, 2008
Digital Storytelling Meets Folk Stories
Cowboy Songs and Singers: Of Lifeways and Legend
I chose this to review since it is one part of the “Through Our Parents’ Eyes” website that I return to nearly every time. The stories of the cowboys often remind me of my grandfather who ran a cattle ranch in Florida for many years. He is full of entertaining songs and stories much like the ones featured on this site. I was only able to review some of the media on this site, since either the links are bad or my computer isn’t reading the data (probably a little of both). There is some really fun audio of cowboy songs and interviews. It would be great to do some research and try to find some images or footage of the performers or just cowboys in general to enrich the history of the available information. There is an interview with a fiddle maker, Charlie Kennedy, who lost three fingers to a lawnmower (OUCH!) and he whittled new ones out of wood and re-taught himself how to play. He relates a story of a woman who won a competition but humorously argued that another guy had an advantage because he played his fiddle on his chest instead of under his chin. So Mr. Kennedy made her a breast-cut fiddle, with a section cut out of the end to fit her chest. It would be great to see pictures of that fiddle or his wooden fingers, or to see him play his fiddle with them. There has to be some pictures taken from the performances, and they would really add to the appreciation of this fading art of both fiddle making and fiddle playing. Characters like these are hard to find anymore. I am realizing how important that I document my grandfather’s contributions. I can remember him singing one of his favorites – Cross-eyed Sue:
Oh, I have a gal
Named Cross-eyed Sue,
Her eyes are red
And her lips are blue
Dimpled hair and curly cheeks;
Her false teeth rattle and her glass eye squeaks
Her old man quite a sight
He’s drunk both night and day
He feeds the horses flapjacks and he feeds the kids on hay
Her momma talks so loud and fast
She couldn't hear to stop herself
So she talks herself to death
You just can't let precious artifacts like that slip away. And as entertaining as the words are, hearing an old cowboy sing it is fantastic. Adding images of my old grandpa on the farm would be not only a great family story, but it documents a forgotten age when the west was just beginning to be tamed.
I chose this to review since it is one part of the “Through Our Parents’ Eyes” website that I return to nearly every time. The stories of the cowboys often remind me of my grandfather who ran a cattle ranch in Florida for many years. He is full of entertaining songs and stories much like the ones featured on this site. I was only able to review some of the media on this site, since either the links are bad or my computer isn’t reading the data (probably a little of both). There is some really fun audio of cowboy songs and interviews. It would be great to do some research and try to find some images or footage of the performers or just cowboys in general to enrich the history of the available information. There is an interview with a fiddle maker, Charlie Kennedy, who lost three fingers to a lawnmower (OUCH!) and he whittled new ones out of wood and re-taught himself how to play. He relates a story of a woman who won a competition but humorously argued that another guy had an advantage because he played his fiddle on his chest instead of under his chin. So Mr. Kennedy made her a breast-cut fiddle, with a section cut out of the end to fit her chest. It would be great to see pictures of that fiddle or his wooden fingers, or to see him play his fiddle with them. There has to be some pictures taken from the performances, and they would really add to the appreciation of this fading art of both fiddle making and fiddle playing. Characters like these are hard to find anymore. I am realizing how important that I document my grandfather’s contributions. I can remember him singing one of his favorites – Cross-eyed Sue:
Oh, I have a gal
Named Cross-eyed Sue,
Her eyes are red
And her lips are blue
Dimpled hair and curly cheeks;
Her false teeth rattle and her glass eye squeaks
Her old man quite a sight
He’s drunk both night and day
He feeds the horses flapjacks and he feeds the kids on hay
Her momma talks so loud and fast
She couldn't hear to stop herself
So she talks herself to death
You just can't let precious artifacts like that slip away. And as entertaining as the words are, hearing an old cowboy sing it is fantastic. Adding images of my old grandpa on the farm would be not only a great family story, but it documents a forgotten age when the west was just beginning to be tamed.
June 18, 2008
Time to Change My Wiki Ways
Wikis are something that I never knew could be a customizable resource before this last year. I have used Wikipedia but I never thought about contributing or creating one of my own. It seems though that everyone else has. Since my background is in secondary education I chose K-12 as the emphasis for this blog.
I want to review a couple of the wikis provided in our class website resources for educational wikis. I looked at the Digital Media in Teaching and Learning wiki and was immediately put off by how busy and disorganized it appeared. It was difficult to navigate and there didn’t seem to be any logic to the entries. It seems that it was made for college students but I had a hard time sorting it out. However, The Discovery -Ism Project was really impressive. This site was designed for middle school students. The students working on this project were using all the different types of technology and embedding document, video and audio to create their own pages that gave them a chance to express themselves. I can see this working really well in a library too. Youth librarians would do well to follow this educator’s example. Another is one created by an educator in New Zealand, named Educational Software and Web 2.0. Her audience is other educators. She has developed a great wiki with live chat options (of course, since she’s on the other side of the world, we’d have to chat in what would be the middle of the night for me). Her wiki is very well organized and full of resources which educators can use in their classes.
I also searched on the Internet to see what others are doing. One wiki I found titled High School Online Collaborative Writing features pages from various schools that have pages for classes in Physics, civil rights, journalism, design technology, and humanities, among others. Obviously, educators are finding many applications for wikis in the classroom. With the increased interest in images and video, wikis could be used for class discussions of artists’ work or to display student work. Video presentations could be made of class presentations or lecture materials with accompanying student research or comments. The wiki does not have to be limited to one class or one school year. It can involve several classes over several years, each class contributing to the whole. One school could also develop a wiki with another school in another state or country to share ideas and cultures.
Using a wiki in a library setting offers many other opportunities for collaboration. Library staff can use a wiki as a tool to develop ideas for community outreach and event planning. By allowing everyone to view and contribute to a wiki it would save time since everyone wouldn’t have to wait for emails to get around to everyone. It would also allow everyone to see all the ideas in one place. A wiki page could also be used to update employees on software update information, library policy changes and such items that would help them serve the users better. The University of Minnesota has a library staff website/wiki, which is a great example of how something like this could work. Not as nicely developed yet, but still a good example is Oregon libraries’ network staff L-net wiki.
For users a wiki could be used for book reviews and recommendations. Iowa Librarians' Readers' Advisory is a wiki site that seems to still be in development but does give me ideas about how to use wikis in a library setting. Allowing users to develop book recommendation pages would give them a voice in the library and other users can add more information about the same books or add others that they want to recommend. Book clubs can use wikis to discuss what they’ve read. Teen groups can create a wiki of current events or favorite YouTube videos. Adult users can use wikis to present and discuss community events and information like elections. One great thing about wikis is that the user does not have to physically be in the library in order to participate. They can be at home, work, vacation, anywhere, and still participate in book clubs and discussions.
The Wikipedia Community Portal was a real eye opener for me. I never realized there was so much going on behind the scenes. Here are a few things that were new to me.
Portals—This is a place to collectively connect to items. Portals provide information on related items that might otherwise not be directly connected in a regular search in Wikipedia.
Wikiprojects —This section is dedicated to pages that help coordinate and organize article writing and editing. These are works in progress that are not yet ready to be viewed in the regular Wikipedia pages.
Collaborations — This is where existing articles are edited to expand content or clean up and improve an article’s content.
Discussions — This area lists comments and concern brought up by other users and editors. These have been subdivided into categories that make it easy to quickly identify section where a user could find a section they want to contribute to.
Wikizine —Described as “a (nearly) weekly news letter. It attempts to bring the most important news from the global Wikimedia family for everybody involved with Wikimedia.” It serves a brief ‘head-up’ to keep users informed on changes and topics.
The Village Pump — “This set of pages is used to discuss the technical issues, policies, and operations of Wikipedia.” This really gives users ownership and voice in the operation and maintenance of Wikipedia.
Wikipedia Weekly — Wikipedia’s podcast. Well, they have everything else, so why not?
It is amazing to me to realize that I have been using Wikipedia for so long and never knew there was so much to it. I always wondered who contributed to Wikipedia, but never felt until now that it could be me. As a librarian, it is important to the users that I serve that I am aware of and promote these kinds of services, both the official Wikipedia site and my library’s own wiki.
I want to review a couple of the wikis provided in our class website resources for educational wikis. I looked at the Digital Media in Teaching and Learning wiki and was immediately put off by how busy and disorganized it appeared. It was difficult to navigate and there didn’t seem to be any logic to the entries. It seems that it was made for college students but I had a hard time sorting it out. However, The Discovery -Ism Project was really impressive. This site was designed for middle school students. The students working on this project were using all the different types of technology and embedding document, video and audio to create their own pages that gave them a chance to express themselves. I can see this working really well in a library too. Youth librarians would do well to follow this educator’s example. Another is one created by an educator in New Zealand, named Educational Software and Web 2.0. Her audience is other educators. She has developed a great wiki with live chat options (of course, since she’s on the other side of the world, we’d have to chat in what would be the middle of the night for me). Her wiki is very well organized and full of resources which educators can use in their classes.
I also searched on the Internet to see what others are doing. One wiki I found titled High School Online Collaborative Writing features pages from various schools that have pages for classes in Physics, civil rights, journalism, design technology, and humanities, among others. Obviously, educators are finding many applications for wikis in the classroom. With the increased interest in images and video, wikis could be used for class discussions of artists’ work or to display student work. Video presentations could be made of class presentations or lecture materials with accompanying student research or comments. The wiki does not have to be limited to one class or one school year. It can involve several classes over several years, each class contributing to the whole. One school could also develop a wiki with another school in another state or country to share ideas and cultures.
Using a wiki in a library setting offers many other opportunities for collaboration. Library staff can use a wiki as a tool to develop ideas for community outreach and event planning. By allowing everyone to view and contribute to a wiki it would save time since everyone wouldn’t have to wait for emails to get around to everyone. It would also allow everyone to see all the ideas in one place. A wiki page could also be used to update employees on software update information, library policy changes and such items that would help them serve the users better. The University of Minnesota has a library staff website/wiki, which is a great example of how something like this could work. Not as nicely developed yet, but still a good example is Oregon libraries’ network staff L-net wiki.
For users a wiki could be used for book reviews and recommendations. Iowa Librarians' Readers' Advisory is a wiki site that seems to still be in development but does give me ideas about how to use wikis in a library setting. Allowing users to develop book recommendation pages would give them a voice in the library and other users can add more information about the same books or add others that they want to recommend. Book clubs can use wikis to discuss what they’ve read. Teen groups can create a wiki of current events or favorite YouTube videos. Adult users can use wikis to present and discuss community events and information like elections. One great thing about wikis is that the user does not have to physically be in the library in order to participate. They can be at home, work, vacation, anywhere, and still participate in book clubs and discussions.
The Wikipedia Community Portal was a real eye opener for me. I never realized there was so much going on behind the scenes. Here are a few things that were new to me.
Portals—This is a place to collectively connect to items. Portals provide information on related items that might otherwise not be directly connected in a regular search in Wikipedia.
Wikiprojects —This section is dedicated to pages that help coordinate and organize article writing and editing. These are works in progress that are not yet ready to be viewed in the regular Wikipedia pages.
Collaborations — This is where existing articles are edited to expand content or clean up and improve an article’s content.
Discussions — This area lists comments and concern brought up by other users and editors. These have been subdivided into categories that make it easy to quickly identify section where a user could find a section they want to contribute to.
Wikizine —Described as “a (nearly) weekly news letter. It attempts to bring the most important news from the global Wikimedia family for everybody involved with Wikimedia.” It serves a brief ‘head-up’ to keep users informed on changes and topics.
The Village Pump — “This set of pages is used to discuss the technical issues, policies, and operations of Wikipedia.” This really gives users ownership and voice in the operation and maintenance of Wikipedia.
Wikipedia Weekly — Wikipedia’s podcast. Well, they have everything else, so why not?
It is amazing to me to realize that I have been using Wikipedia for so long and never knew there was so much to it. I always wondered who contributed to Wikipedia, but never felt until now that it could be me. As a librarian, it is important to the users that I serve that I am aware of and promote these kinds of services, both the official Wikipedia site and my library’s own wiki.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
