5 Resources for Creating Library Websites

1. Public Library Website Guidelines

 Published by the State of Rhode Island, this webpage contains a generic list of information that should be included in your library website. It focuses on public libraries, but the information could easily be applied to academic or special libraries. It contains a basic list of Do's and Dont's when designing a web site and some neat little links to further resources.

2. WEBMONKEY


Webmonkey has been floating around the internet for years. It is a community as well as a site for tutorials, cheat sheets, colour charts and code snippets that savvy web designers can borrow for their website. I have personally used webmonkey for hex colour codes. For those of you who aren't familiar with this term, check our the webmonkey page here: http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/color_charts/

3. W3C

This website is probably a little heavy going for people unfamiliar with web design and development, but the W3C is responsible for creating the guidelines and protocols that govern the world wide web. You can read more about their mission statement here: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/mission.html. This website is good because it also includes design and development information such as 'What is HTML?' or 'What is CSS?', 'What are graphics used for?' and a plethora of other questions pertaining to the creation and maintenance of websites. They also include links to other websites for tutorials and information.

4. Library Patrons

This resource was brought to the attention of the class and I thought it was brilliant, as well as shattered that I didn't even think of it! Of course the patrons are the absolute best resource for designing the library website because they are the ones that have to use it! I think the more often and the more ways patrons are asked about the website and its services the better for the library. There might even be a web design guru hiding there!

5. Library Collections

And of course the final resource which I also overlooked when thinking about designing websites, the actual library collection itself. There are entire journals dedicated to designing websites with tutorials and cheat sheets and code snippets. Any books published on HTML or the like would probably be outdated, but they could provide an excellent crash course in the basics. Online resources as well might have links to video tutorials and things. The library collection should probably be your first stop when it comes to designing your libraries website!