A media center’s web site should be an advertisement for the services that are provided there. It should also allow access via passwords to as many of its resources as possible when the library is closed, so students and teachers can work on research from home. As a high school English teacher, I know this is paramount because often students must be able to access online databases before and after school hours in order to meet assignment deadlines. Teachers should also be able to find out what materials the library has in its collection without having to physically go to the LMC. This is an especially convenient and helpful tool in very large schools, where it may take a great deal of time to physically go the LMC. Personally, I really like web pages that are ORGANIZED and easy to maneuver. Visual appeal is not a major priority for me. I really like to be able to quickly find the materials I need and to get to work, or move on if the resource does not have what I need.
On a school web site I think it is important to feature all of the basic information regarding names of media specialists, e-mail addresses, hours of operation, mission statement and purpose, etc. Online databases and resources should be clearly visible and easy to access. I love when web sites feature current events and activities that would likely be of interest to patrons. The school where I observe, Kennesaw Mountain High School, has an excellent web site that the media specialists work diligently to keep updated. They feature notices about new order arrivals and new displays. They have many other really cool features. One that I think is especially helpful for teachers is that they have a link to their media center calendar, so you do not have to come into the media center to schedule class visits. You merely look on the online schedule, select a date and class period that is available, e-mail the LMS, and you are set. This saves so much time! It’s those types of features that I believe make a media center’s web site relevant to its patrons.
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3 comments:
Erin I totally agree with you about having media center websites organized. Bright colors and pictures are nice, but what's really important is being able to find the information you need. To add to that, having media center websites with updated information and research sources is such a huge help. I can see how this would be especially important at the high school level. In my experience at the elementary level, it's been hard to get teachers to use sources like Nettrekker and Galileo frequently. They often just allow students to pull up Google and go for it. I also loved the idea your mentor had about putting a school-wide media center calendar link on the website. What a time saver! I've seen this used in a high school near here, and the teachers love it! I think it also helps encourage more frequent use of the media center itself. Has your mentor ever had problems with teachers changing other teacher's time slots without permission? I bet there would be a lot of fur flying if that happened!
Erin, you just gave me a brilliant idea! I have not been using an online calendar for media center access, as it also updates the main calendar for the school (it is an unfortunate side effect of schoolinsites). I may however put a link to a google calendar on my website and let teachers use it for signing up and seeing the schedule.
Thanks.
Erin, I had not considered this before, but if there were a good way to provide a link to materials in the collection and by topic, students would be able to quickly identify what was in stock and save the time of physically looking through the selection. Perhaps there is a media center software program that already does this? Additionally, the ability to reserve time to bring in a class or to reserve the computer lab would be much superior to looking through a sign-up book, which is the system currently employed at my school. Paul
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