Best Practices for Creating School Library Websites

Collect, link and publish descriptions only of about 3-5 different resources that you have found useful in better understanding your topic(s).

 - Assignment 2, LIBE 477B, UBC

Oh my goodness. The task of finding 3-5 resources useful for my chosen topic took me down Internet rabbit hole after rabbit hole. Interesting detours, yes, but not necessarily useful-for-university-level-academia detours. After much reading, I decided to focus on learning more about quality library websites. Here are some resources I’m liking the look of:

1. How Usable Are School Library Websites? A Random Sample from All Fifty States

This 2016 article details the results of a survey of school library websites from across the United States. The article states that most school library websites rate poorly on measures of how engaging they are, age-appropriateness, and website design best practices. The authors of the article came up with a best practice checklist on ways to make a school library website more usable. Much of the supporting research they cite also looks intriguing.

Image from pixabay.com

2. Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites

This article culminates in a list of important things to consider when designing and developing a website for an elementary school. It's from 2008 and not everything on the list is applicable to libraries specifically, but there are some good basic points:

• develop a shared agenda
• plan the site with various stakeholders BEFORE designing/developing
• design expecting change
• follow general web design rules
• focus on benefits (like sharing student work!)
• additional resource for teachers

I especially appreciated the reminder to ask for input from a variety of stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, admin...) on the proposed website plan before spending all the time creating the site.

3. The Virtual Library

This is an older article from 2005. it is an easy read that extolls the many benefits of having a school library webpage. Valenza's quote, "A virtual library can become an integral part of the instructional culture of the school" pretty much sums up why I think the library webpage is so important.

4. Jackson Elementary Library

This isn't an academic article about best practices. Instead, it's an example of an outstanding and current elementary school library website. I found it through an article from Edublogger called School Library Websites: Essential Features And Examples, but I'm sure I've also seen it somewhere in the materials for our course. I recognized the jaguar. According to my readings, this is evidence of good branding!

5. 6 Essentials Every School Library Website Needs

Again, this link isn't academic. It is a YouTube video attached to a blog post from "Mrs J in the Library". The thing I liked about it was the extremely user-friendly checklist of important things to include on a school library website that went along with the video. She even divided her list into 2 categories: Essentials and "Expert Level Extras". Being new to the library game, I appreciate the step by step approach she recommends.