PLA '06 Boston Conference: The Role of the LIbrary's Website

EYE-OPENER articles in recent weeks have pointed to the newly launched PLOW Project (Putting Libraries on the Web) This new initiative, administered by the State Library and funded through a grant from the Gates Foundation, will offer website hosting and email hosting to Iowa’s public libraries. To date, 219 libraries statewide have turned in a letter of intent, signaling interest in participating. Happily, 54 of those are Northwest Iowa libraries. Remember, the earliest deadline to return your letter of intent is April 28.

So in light of the PLOW Project and so much interest from Northwest libraries, I want to share points from a PLA conference session entitled “The New Branch: What is the Role of the Library’s Website?” Speakers from Phoenix and Denver Public Libraries shared the dais and agreed that a library’s website must be engaging, relevant, informational, and functional. They urged libraries to see their websites as educational opportunities to link people to the library’s own collection, but also to other online resources like EBSCO, to package the best of the web in terms of children’s sites, medical sites, consumer information, etc.

The speakers also stressed the need to make library websites functional and convenient. Here are some of their suggestions for making websites convenient by making them customer-service driven:

Online fine and fee payment
Online reserves
Online overdue notices—days before the items are actually due
Online reporting of lost or stolen cards
Online library card applications
Online donations to the Friends Group or to the library foundation
Online program registration
Online meeting room reservation
Online customer satisfaction—or other kinds—of surveys (“Survey Monkey” anyone?)

Virtual branches much also relay the feeling that there’s a staff behind the web, so always bring forward the staff presence by presenting:

Email us
Website feedback
Blogs
Virtual reference questions
Online book discussion groups
Virtual programming like pod-casting story times

You can see these features in action on Denver Public Library’s website: http://denverlibrary.org/ The PLOW Project promises great website design and content for Iowa’s libraries. Be sure to join in and ensure that your new website will shine a new light on what your local library has to offer!