Websites

=LIS 5260 - Website Evaluation=

Pine Meadow Elementary School Media Center
@http://www.sartell.k12.mn.us/pine-meadow-elementary/media-center

The first thing that I noticed about the Pine Meadow Elementary Media Center site was its well organized layout. There is a good balance between the grid-like layout and the number of images and amount of text. The color scheme is attractive and professional looking.

It uses a content organization formula that I think is top notch. When you open the page, **without having to scroll**, you see links to the OPAC, contacting the librarians, searching the site, district calendar, using kid-safe search engines, media center social networking links and links to student, staff and subject resources.

The aspect of this site that I would like to incorporate into my own media center site would be the well organized layout, especially since its an elementary media center site, it makes locating the media center's resources very simple.

Durgee Jr. High School Library Media Center - Baldwinsville Central School District
@http://www.bville.org/teacherpage3.cfm?teacher=1732

I like this media center site because the main page is easy to navigate with the left sidebar menu and graphic icons for searching, references and resources. I think with the amount of information media centers have to manage being able to organize it simply and efficiently is crucial.

Another feature of this media center is the availability of communication between the students and the librarian and school district. There are multiple surveys available and an online form to "Ask a Librarian", which makes contacting the librarian really easy. There are also links to follow the media center on Twitter and Facebook, which I //personally// don't think is uber-critical but it seems to be the norm in Libraries 2.0.

The feature that I would add to my media center site would be the Student Showcase. It is the link that directs viewers to an online gallery of student projects that consisted of video and audio files, but could also contain presentations, written reports, images of artwork to show parents, teachers and community members the hard work of the kids and the subjects that they've been studying.

Cheltenham High School
@http://www.cheltenham.org/CheltenhamHigh.cfm?subpage=26051

Generally, when I'm drawn to a website its usually because its visually appealing and is not overrun with text. Well this site has lots of text on it, but I still liked it for the single fact the content was easy to read, the content had attention grabbing titles and links and the left hand sidebar was well organized.

There are the basic features that one would expect to see: links to search the OPAC and web, research and citation resources, online databases, reading lists, award books, ask a librarian, a 'how are we doing' survey and an events calendar. Surprisingly I found numerous links to interesting sites that I'd never explored before and thought were excellent choices to add to a High School Media Center site, for example, Turnitin.com for avoiding/preventing/detecting plagiarism, Quizlet for making study flashcards and Figment for Creative Writing.

The feature on this site that I would add to a media center site is the New York Times Archive. I love to read old newspapers and this would be a great resource to access. The search window for the Oxford English Dictionary was cool too, however a subscription is necessary to access that one.

Overall a site with lots of text, but lots of interesting, grab your attention text. So I thought it well done.