Library Website Redesign

Redesigning the Romulus and Lincoln Park Public Library Websites

History of the Project

• Leah was hired as an unpaid library intern in Romulus.

• With minimal web design experience she volunteered to help improve the site.

• Small changes turned into big changes until the site was completely redone.

• The Romulus director emailed other directors in the area explaining the intern's success.

• Other local libraries reached out to UMSI students for help.

Original Romulus Website

New Romulus Website

Original Lincoln Park Website

Site Goals & User Concerns

GoalsCreate more dynamic contentBetter Information ArchitectureAllow more user interaction with the site.Make an online community

User ConcernsAbility to easily update siteTime commitment to site:Who will write

the blogs, how much content needs to be written?

Is there enough content?

New Lincoln Park Development Website

Budget & Time Commitment

• Public libraries generally have very small budgets.

• Unpaid interns are a huge resource.

• Rebuilding a website is a huge time commitment.

• Finding the right tools and resources is the key to success.

Content Management Systems

• WordPress (http://wordpress.org/)

• Drupal (http://drupal.org/)

• Joomla (http://www.joomla.org/)

• Plone (http://plone.org/)

• ModX (http://modx.com/)

• Weebly (http://www.weebly.com/)

Library website examples (except ModX and Weebly) courtesy of Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki (http://www.libsuccess.org/Content_Management_Systems_(CMS))

WordPress

Drupal

Joomla

Plone

ModX

Weebly

Community & Social Media

• Patrons expecting more from library websites

• Pew Internet Report on Libraries in the Digital Age (2013), "[Patrons] said that even finding and reserving books could be overly complicated, and others said that the interfaces seem outdated"

• Branding for consistency & recognition

"Let the library be the George Takei of your community.“ – Ben Bizzle

Thank you

Questions?