There won't be any more issues until June. My son is getting married and I will be involved in wedding festivities.
UNUSUALLY INTERESTING LIBRARY WEB SITES: MULTNOMAH COUNTY LIBRARY
by Marylaine Block
Multnomah County Library's web site is http://www.multcolib.org/
The clean, readily understandable, no-scroll-necessary interface of Multnomah County Library's home page is as deceptive as an iceberg's tip, giving easy access to one of the most thorough offerings of library services online that I've ever seen.
Like any library home page, it points to its Electronic Resources, "A collection of research tools selected and organized by reference staff at Multnomah County Library." (It's always a good idea to remind people that librarians don't just buy and house materials, we add value to them.) When you click on it -- and any of its subpages -- the navigation bar at the top of the page always reminds people of the full range of library resources by pointing to the Library Catalog, Magazines Online, Newspapers Online, and a pull-down menu of Subscription Databases.
Select a subject area, say Genealogy, and the page points to Online Databases, Selected Web Sites, and often a library-created tutorial on finding and using the resources in this area. Graphic symbols tell users which databases may be accessed anywhere by inputting the library card bar code number. Selected web sites are arranged in user-friendly categories, annotated, and small enough in number to not intimidate users.
Readers' Connection points to Book Discussion Groups, Booklists (Our topical and "If you like...reading lists"), newly purchased titles, electronic resources, and the opportunity to suggest a book to purchase. The page links to an Online Book Club as well. An unusual feature is the link to a library program called Storytime for Grown-ups, an event where "Local actors entertain adult audiences with dramatic readings from literature."
Redundancy is a useful design feature -- pointing users to particular resources from every page on which they might be relevant. In other contexts, the "Ask Us! Online" page is pointed to in terms of answers to informational questions, but it's highlighted on the Readers' Connection page in terms of the readers' service function: "Searching for a book similar to one you've enjoyed? Can't recall the title of a book? Ask Us!"
The Kids Page is a small jewel. Among its unusual features is the Para Los Niņos page, which points to Spanish language resources for children (did you know that Ranger Rick had a Spanish language version?).
Its Homework Center is one of the best I've seen anyplace. I often recommend its Social Issues page to teachers and librarians because it not only gives students quality resources on hot topics that arouse a lot of student interest, it indirectly teaches students what kinds of resources constitute good information. Typically, each topic will be divided into "Megasites" (portals), "support," "Oppose," and "Legislation." These pages are routinely maintained and updated.
The OuterNet, for young adults, offers links to standard topics of interest, but also includes a Spanish language page, a list of Help! resources (whether kids need to get help or offer to give it), and an opportunity for teens to contribute their own reviews.
The parents' page is truly impressive, starting with the Parents' Guide to Multnomah County Library's own resources and policies, which offers tips on how to supervise their children's library and internet use and does a pretty good job of explaining why no library can protect all children from everything parents might conceivably find offensive.
The page also offers home schooling resources, pointing not just to web sites but to books in the library's collection. (I always think libraries are making a mistake if they don't do that, because books still often provide the best and most systematic introduction to a topic, and a library should not assist in its own destruction by adding to the myth that "everything's available on the net.")
Also available from the home page are the CyberSeniors page, including online tutorials, e-mail tips, a calendar of events for seniors, and selected web sites for seniors, and "Your Library Guide," which offers detailed information about the library, including online Library publications such as its electronic newsletter, library policies, the event finder, "Renovation News," and the library five-year plan.
The site could be made even better if navigation was improved, however. The navigation bar is not consistent across all pages -- it's still sometimes necessary to go back to the home page in order to perform your next task. And while one would expect the library icon at the top of every page to refer back to the home page, it doesn't always do that.
I would also quarrel with the fact that, while on many pages, reference is made to "subscription databases," it drops the term "subscription" from the full listing of them, simply calling them "Databases available on the Web from your home, office or school." Saying "available ON the web" suggests that the service is freely available to anyone with a browser. I much prefer using "BY WAY OF the web," or "THROUGH the web." I think it's important for us to always point out to our users that these services are free TO THEM because WE PAID FOR THEM with THEIR TAX MONEY.
Nonetheless, a lot of intelligence has gone into the planning of this web site. Librarians have obviously thought not only about how traditional library services can be offered online, but how the internet allows them to offer entirely new kinds of services, outreach, marketing, and communication with users that was never possible before. Any library can pick up some useful ideas from Multnomah County Library's page.
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COOL QUOTE
Whatever systems are developed to control the exchange of published work in the digital realm, we need to insist on provisions for the kind of public access that libraries have traditionally made possible. Too much is at stake to let the publishing industry undo the careful copyright balance we have all come to rely upon.
All of which brings me back to that Manila sewer grate. Just as residents there came to treat gaping holes in the street as a normal-even acceptable-condition, we could get used to a world without public libraries. But the absence of free and accessible information would leave a gaping hole in our "infostructure" and result in an impoverished world. It is a world we can-and should-resist.
Seth Shulman, "Owning the Future: Looting the Library." Technology Review, June 2001.
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Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
http://marylaine.com/exlibris/
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2002.
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