- Include an entry which points to the websites of at least 5 library related organisations. Tell us what you like about those websites and what you don't like about them.
This week the class discussed library related websites and which ones were the most impressive.
Websites were selected based on design, functionality, clarity, vibrancy, ease of navigation and dynamic page elements.
*The following are screen captures of the top 5 library related websites. Each image is hyperlinked to it's respective homepage by adding a href attribute into html which specifies the URL of the page the link goes to.
New York City Public Library
This website excels at promoting the library's new programs and events. The rich images attract the eye of the viewer while the short captions summarise points of interest quickly. Every image block is hyperlinked to an article giving further detail and explanation.
ALIA
ALIA presents it's information in a clean, minimalistic manner. Every clickable icon is quite big as well. It's an achievement for an organisation as large as ALIA which hosts a large amount of information on it's website to appear deceptively simple.
OCLC
Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs. The splash page consists of video and recent news. The scrolling slideshow of images also grabs instant attention. At the bottom of the page are contact details, newsletters, OCLC's online social media links, forms for subscriptions, sign up sheets for upcoming events and information about staff are located here too. The overall impression is that the site is focused on making direct involvement and communication between users easy.
Libraries Australia
Libraries Australia is a resource sharing service managed by the National Library of Australia for Australian libraries and their users. Its key missions are to support the workflows of Australian libraries and provide data to underpin the Trove discovery service. The Libraries Australia service which provides access to a database showing what items are available in over 850 Australian libraries. The free service is available to any internet user. It has a simple search mechanism which confirms whether an item is held in Australian libraries. If it is available in Australia, you can find out which libraries hold it and what their address is. With that information, you can approach the library directly or ask your local library to arrange an interlibrary loan or obtain photocopies for you. Libraries Australia has made workflows efficient by standardising the online documents needed. The home page is where the user can find tutorials on how to get started. Libraries Australia does a good job of training and support for it's services.
CAVAL
CAVAL is a member-based organisation anticipating, offering and developing services in partnership with university libraries to support the integration and access of information resources for teaching, learning and research. CAVAL aims to achieve this by working in the context of a digital environment.
CAVAL doesn't make this obvious on it's home page. CAVAL should make it more obvious that it is focused on services for University libraries. A sign of bad Web design is that important information is buried within the website. In this case a mission statement on the home page would have been more appropriate to orientate first time users to the value of the site.
Websites were selected based on design, functionality, clarity, vibrancy, ease of navigation and dynamic page elements.
*The following are screen captures of the top 5 library related websites. Each image is hyperlinked to it's respective homepage by adding a href attribute into html which specifies the URL of the page the link goes to.
New York City Public Library
This website excels at promoting the library's new programs and events. The rich images attract the eye of the viewer while the short captions summarise points of interest quickly. Every image block is hyperlinked to an article giving further detail and explanation.
ALIA
ALIA presents it's information in a clean, minimalistic manner. Every clickable icon is quite big as well. It's an achievement for an organisation as large as ALIA which hosts a large amount of information on it's website to appear deceptively simple.
OCLC
Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs. The splash page consists of video and recent news. The scrolling slideshow of images also grabs instant attention. At the bottom of the page are contact details, newsletters, OCLC's online social media links, forms for subscriptions, sign up sheets for upcoming events and information about staff are located here too. The overall impression is that the site is focused on making direct involvement and communication between users easy.
Libraries Australia
Libraries Australia is a resource sharing service managed by the National Library of Australia for Australian libraries and their users. Its key missions are to support the workflows of Australian libraries and provide data to underpin the Trove discovery service. The Libraries Australia service which provides access to a database showing what items are available in over 850 Australian libraries. The free service is available to any internet user. It has a simple search mechanism which confirms whether an item is held in Australian libraries. If it is available in Australia, you can find out which libraries hold it and what their address is. With that information, you can approach the library directly or ask your local library to arrange an interlibrary loan or obtain photocopies for you. Libraries Australia has made workflows efficient by standardising the online documents needed. The home page is where the user can find tutorials on how to get started. Libraries Australia does a good job of training and support for it's services.
CAVAL is a member-based organisation anticipating, offering and developing services in partnership with university libraries to support the integration and access of information resources for teaching, learning and research. CAVAL aims to achieve this by working in the context of a digital environment.
CAVAL doesn't make this obvious on it's home page. CAVAL should make it more obvious that it is focused on services for University libraries. A sign of bad Web design is that important information is buried within the website. In this case a mission statement on the home page would have been more appropriate to orientate first time users to the value of the site.
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