Blog 2 Media
Center Webpages
After reading all the information for the assignment and
looking at the websites given I decided to check out several Cobb County media
center websites for all three levels of schools. Wow, it’s amazing how different they
are. There are those that you can tell
spend a lot of time updating the website and keeping it relevant to the
school. There are others, however, that
have not updated the website in months and still advertise events from
September. I even found a couple of
schools that had nothing but the media staffs’ names. I looked at these websites for a couple of
hours and saw some things I loved and other things that just drove me crazy or
made me cringe. I am not identifying any
particular schools in this post. These
are just things that I feel are important.
Some of the things I loved were:
·
Hours of operation and when students needed a
pass to visit
·
Quotes from books
·
Media Center video orientations
·
Book club information
·
Book reviews
·
Volunteer information
·
Television lineup for channels available at
school
o
For high school (which is what I am most
interested in)
§
Citation links with TUTORIALS
§
Georgia Hope information links
§
College information and links
§
EOC and GHSGT study guides
§
Georgia Driver’s Manual link
Some of the things that drove me crazy were colors, outdated
information, links without instructions on how to use them, links that didn’t
work, jumbled layouts, and misspelled words.
I love colors but some color should just not be used. Websites with dark backgrounds and dark
colors, or those colors that make you squint to see what’s on the page make
them too unappealing. I even gave up on
one just after pulling it up because it was just too hard to read. Then there are links; a pet peeve of mine is
to be given a link to something and when you get there you have no idea how to
use it and it is extremely time consuming to try. I would definitely leave that site and find
another one on my own. It would be nice
to have a tutorial right next to the link so everyone will use what you have
put on your website. Right up there with
useless links are those links that just don’t work. I clicked on several that did not work but
the two that really stood out were a link to our Cobb County Digital Library
that took me to an old screenshot of our district website, and one where I
clicked on the media center link on a school website and it gave me a clickable
listing of all Cobb County School
media centers instead of directing me to their own website.
And how about jumbled websites that make it very difficult
to find your information? I found a
couple that seemed really clever but as I scrolled over information it circled
the area in red, but the circles covered most of the words so it was hard to
read what I was hovering over. Another
website just listed several links at the top of the page, in no particular
order and it was hard to follow.
Misspellings are another issue on a website. Sometimes these are difficult to catch, even
our textbooks have typos. You should
have someone who will take the time to look over your website periodically and
make sure there are no errors.
With all that being said, the things that really made me
cringe were having media center class schedules, with teachers’ names and times
they were visiting the media center, and sign in Google Forms with students’
names and why they visited the media center accessible to everyone inside and
outside the school. There are so many
privacy laws and predators out there that I believe this to be a safety
concern. Having children of my own that
just graduated high school I definitely would not want their information out
there for everyone to see.
I have learned so much just from visiting these websites and
the ones suggested in our assignment.
Some information I will use for ideas for my own media center website
while others I will make sure not to use.
It is a good idea to look around at other websites and maybe even ask staff
and students what they would want on our school website, but this gets me
started in the right direction.
Connie I am with you. I have looked at different sites for about two hours now and find that there are great sites and then those that you wonder what happened. I am sure that some of the sites are still "under construction" but I think that if the site is not fully functional the media specialist should not let it go live. I viewed some of the sites in one county that has four schools and found that 2 of the 4 schools had media pages linked to their home web page. The other two had no link whatsoever. I think the all needed a site with information on how to access books in the library, a list of resources, information for the teachers, links, useful search engines, and many more items could have been listed on those pages. I found one media site that said Kingdom books web page but nothing was there but the media specialist name. Granted these MS may have gotten busy with the everyday jobs of the media specialist and nothing was added. My plea would be please add, please advertise, please explore other media websites and glean from their layouts and create and do. There are more people out there that search your media pages thatn you know off. I did go to one of my favorite media specialist and found tons of information he had listed. I also found a couple of new math web sites for my classes to look over. I enjoyed viewing the websites listed in our assignments. I really think now it would be important to have a book blog so students and teachers as time permits could talk about different books they have read and spur interest among other students. I enjoyed looking at the Milton web site where it talks about "Training teachers on a dime". There are many resources that are listed by grade level on the North Elementary School web site by grade level. These are useful resources. One way it could be used is when the students have free time on the computers the teacher could direct them to explore the web links the media specialist has provided. I also like the links for history and the presidents on this site. I think it is important to spot light books which this would be a good place to post wikis and blogs and links to Georgia award, Caldecott, and Newberry books. Getting students, parents, and staff excited about what is in the library is a must and the media website can help foster this.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing more frustrating than a broken link! I have noticed this even as I peruse my current media center website. Unfortunately, it has not been updated, and it shows. The links to the databases do not work, and the staff has not been updated in two years. I think a lot of it comes down to time and effort. As a media specialist, there are so many roles and duties to conquer at once that the website sometimes can be put on the back burner. I think it is important to designate time each week to peruse and update or insert something new. I think the bulleted list you made was very helpful. I think the orientation video is especially helpful for your new students. I have seen book reviews where you have teachers from the school with their own review over their favorite book. Like anything website though, the wrong presentation layout and broken links can discourage online traffic. Simple and efficient are two key adjectives to keep in mind when designing as we as user-friendly. When people visit the website, they are looking for information whether it is hours, a resource, or a tutorial. Nothing is more frustrating to the user when they cannot find reliable and current information. Not only will this discourage online traffic, but it will also discourage walk-in traffic in the media center. This week definitely inspired me to make a wish list for my hypothetical media center website as I examined the good and the not so good websites from other school.
ReplyDeleteConnie,
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your ideas about links to citation websites and driver manuals. What a great idea! For elementary schools it might be nice to link to websites on research and internet safety. I enjoyed reading your post because you said many of the things I think about what a good website should be. Colors - YES - are important. Making sure links are live and working is very important. Having relevant information on the website related to your school's level is a must. I have seen many different websites for SLMC and agree that there is basic information that should appear on all. The one thing that you brought to my attention was the concern over posting information. I am aware that special care must be taken with photographs, but I would never have thought about not putting schedules up. That is certainly something for me to consider when I am in a SLMS position. It is nice, however, for parents to see when their student should have time in the media center and if it is only flexible or if there are scheduled sessions.
Great job,
Meghen
Catherine Page’s response to Team 4, Blog 2, Student 3 (Connie Woolsey):
ReplyDeleteConnie, you approached this topic in a totally different way. You did some field work, and found the flaws. That’s an excellent way to start off. See what needs fixing and then plan not to make the same mistakes. Misspellings, outdated links, student information posted publicly. You’d think that in this day and age, those things would not happen.
In another assignment, I went to a media center web site and found links that did not work. Most people will give up after the first bad link, but I had to keep going because it was an assignment. With each dead or non-working link, I grew more and more frustrated and disgusted. That’s something we need to keep in mind as we make and maintain our own sites. Be sure to spell check, and be sure to visit the links often and verify that they are still good. And also, update the information on a regular basis so people don’t move on. Just like with everything else, our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, so it’s more important than ever to keep the site fresh.
And of course, having a site is crucial. Even in business, if you have a brick and mortar facility, you still need that web presence to remain viable. You can have the most beautiful media center, but if people can’t access it online, they may never step foot inside the door. We are funny and fickle creatures.
Connie, you're on fire! It got me thinking about my county's media center websites and what shape they were in. I went to each of the elementary school's sites and none really impressed me. Most of them had links to the card catalog and to AR but all of them lacked creativity. There were very basic. One actually had the librarians family pictures scrolling on the page with music playing. Another was just a link to send an email, no web page at all. And none of them had Back buttons which drives me crazy. So here's what I think ... there needs to be training on designing educational web sites, not just shown how to use a web building tool which is what I believe has happened with some of our media specialist.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that when I’ve looked at media center websites for schools I volunteer at and those that I use to get information from that the broken link issue has become a greater issue. I was looking at how to get to destiny from one schools website and it knocked me off because the media specialist did not think to put a link that students could access the catalog from their home or mobile device. I have seen that when schools keep their information updated to what their students want to see they are most likely being viewed more often then those who do not keep things up to date. I would have to agree with your pet peeve on getting to a link and not knowing what you are supposed to be doing after clicking the link if it does not send you where you need to be right away. I hope I won't make these terrible mistakes when I become a media specialist.
ReplyDeleteHi Connie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. I know, if you review different media center websites, you will see all kinds of things. From those that show a true interest in keeping the site up to date, to those that appear as though they never check the site. I like the list you included with the things you feel are important. I will be sure to include many of these things on my site. The high school information was especially helpful. I currently do not have a lot on my page, but plan to change that soon. I would like the media center to stay current with technology and digital resources. You describe the things that make you cringe and I think it makes all of us cringe when we see odd colors, misspelled words, and broken links. Those are the things we as media specialists must pay attention to. When so many things are amiss it makes you want to leave the page and leaves a bad impression. Design can be a challenge for many. I think it is important to take the time to organize the site with what will help patrons quickly find information. I found it interesting that media center calendars with teachers and student’s names were listed publically on a calendar. That does seem like it would pose an issue. I think an important point also is to involve the school community and ask what they what like to see on the site. It can help to provide a more effective site.
LOVE the idea of including the EOCT, GHSGT, and Driver's License study materials in your links. For middle school I can see including links to sites like Edmodo and StudyIsland, but also links to sites that provide information on the GMAS and practice tests if available, educational games, etc.
ReplyDelete