The purpose of this website will be to provide library resources to elementary students, families, and school community members including faculty. The goal of this website will be to provide a digital library space for those who visit. Patrons who visit may do so in order to find answers to library questions. As a gain, this could be more convenient than visiting the library during operating hours.
Based on previous groundwork including interviews and research, a need for such a website clearly exists. Please see the following examples of patrons who might visit this website for various reasons:
The first example could include a faculty member who needs to find books and resources about a unit on Missouri. As a first step, they may visit the website to find contact information for library staff, and gain access to the online catalog search tools, where they may search for books about Missouri. With this information, they may develop a list of books for the unit, and contact library staff to pull and checkout the books for pickup. Using the website and tools found within, the book checkout process may be greatly streamlined!
The second example could include a family member who wants to find out library information. Family members who wish to donate books to the library may find information here on how to do so. If a family member wishes to find books to purchase or checkout for their child, they may find information about which books are most often checked out, most popular per grade level. They may also find contact information for library staff to inquire about any of the above topics, or to schedule a family visit.
A third example of a library patron visiting the website might be a student. As a specific example, students who visit the library twice each week for lessons and book checkout could look at the website prior to a visit to see what books are new to the library. They could also use the website to access the online catalog search, to determine if the book is available. Ideally, there may also be resources or tutorials available to help the young students use the catalog search.
Based on these use cases and apparent needs of patrons, I would like to setup the final website with sections for each type of patron who may be viewing the site. These will likely include sections for:
The clear target audience for this website includes all members of the MICDS lower school community. Specifically, this includes library patrons who are students, faculty and staff, families of students, and other school community members including administration.
In order to gather information, data from the perspectives of the main audience members (students, families, faculty) has been considered. For a brief summary of questions and responses, please see the following link. Data Collection Summary
The following websites have been carefully chosen as reference websites for different elements of each, including content, resources, design and color scheme. Moreover, many of these websites will ideally be familiar to different audineces, allowing for a smooth transition to this new website as a resource. Please explore the following links to each!
There are different rationales behind why I chose these web pages for reference. I believe all of them hold benefits for developing the content, layout, and color schemes of my web page. First off, the MICDS homepage is relevant because everyone is familiar with it, and it shows a similar color scheme to what i want. I also like the simplicity and design of few places to go at the start. I think this makes things easier and I will go with this for my homepage. Next, the three library websites. These are the current library websites for the three branches of libraries at our school. I believe all of these hold specific tools and resources which may prove beneficial to developing a new resource page for the lower school library, however I want my resource sight to be more narrowed and simpler to target the audience. Finally, the catalog search page is used by all, and will prove useful in creating resources about searching for books in the catalog.
Specifically connecting to use cases, faculty often use the library websites for different resources. As an example, see the 'Teacher Tools' tab under the Messing Library link. As for students, they can currently access the catalog search through the lower school site, however I would like to provide more resources for help, and a more direct route to get there. And as for parents, there are different areas they might find helpful within all three library websites, however there is no page designed specifically for them to use... i aim to change this with my final web page.
To start off this webpage, I would like to have some specific, organized, and concise information for each of the members of the target audience. For this to happen, the content will be designed as follows:
The website will begin with a homepage. This page will include general information for all members of the audinece, including hours, contact information, potentially staff biographies, photos of the library, and a welcome message. This page will also include buttons or tabs to different resource pages for different audinece members including students, families, and faculty.
The student page will include information and/or tabs pertinent to students only. This could include new books, popular books, online catalog search tools, etc. all in a user friendly format and language appropriate for very young kids.
The family resource page will include information for families in addition to their students. This could include the previously listed student resources, as well as information about book fairs, book donations, and community news.
The faculty page will consist of information to help faculty members teach in their classrooms. This will most likely include information on creating a resource list through the online catalog search (see the Missouri books example up top), as well as different helpful links to websites.
There will be a welcome message at the top of the page. In the middle of the page (body) will be additional information including:
There will be a welcome message at the top of the page. In the middle of the page (body) will be additional information including:
There will be a welcome message at the top of the page. In the middle of the page (body) will be additional information including:
There will be a welcome message at the top of the page. In the middle of the page (body) will be additional information including:
The link below shows a sketch of the general overview of the homepage, as well as the resource pages for each audinece category. Some areas may be later subdivided based on different levels of information within each area.
MICDS Lower School Library Website WireframeAs a rationale for how my website will be organized, I would like to keep usability and convenience in mind as much as possible. The easier it is to use for different audience members, the more they will use it. Therefore, i find it important to organize in this sectioned fashion to derive the most benefit for my students, their families, and fellow community members.
As for media on the resource website, I plan to incorporate various different elements including images and videos. Thanks to months of coursework and professional projects, I have had the opportunity to take many photos and create many video resources which I believe will greatly assist the future audiences of this website. As a video example, I would like to incorporate a video asset for students which I designed about using the online catalog search to find books. As for photos, the possibilities are unlimited. I would like to add some photos of the library to the homepage, for starters. All media will be self produced and/or credited to the school.
The color scheme of the website will serve two main purposes. First, I want the color scheme to be easily readable and viewable to the target audinece which may have varied ages, and sight ability. Considering this, I plan to use as much contrast between backgrounds and content as possible (lighter background, darker content). Hopefully, this will help the website to be user friendly for all! Second, the website will follow the color scheme of school colors. Our colors are red and green, most often dark red and dark green. By this, I plan to use contrast with light colors such as white, beige or gray to compliment and provide contrast for maximum visibility. As a rationale, all audience members will be familiar with these user friendly colors. As an example, I have attempted to design this page using similar colors and contrast.