I decided that I would like to evaluate a school l library’s website since I will be a school librarian later this year. I attended the ICE Tech-Fest in February and attended a standing room only session presented by teachers/librarians from an Arlington Heights school http://www.ahsd25.k12.il.us/~RebeccaDufern/dufern/index.html. They were on top of things and created so many activities for their students. I figured their website had to be outrageous and I was not disappointed. I will be using a checklist that Michael placed on our blog. It is titled Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 (Jakob Nielsen, Oct. 3-05).
The homepage for this school library has a white background with a picture of the school on it. The title bar is a blue sky with white clouds. A picture of the mascot, a dolphin, is located in the top right hand corner. As you scroll down the page, you will see a picture of the four librarians/aides. They are in a “READ” poster in which ALA sells the software. There is a link to send them an email. If I had Outlook set up, it would work. There are also 2 other links to the school home page and the district. At the very bottom, there is a note that the site was created using RapidWeaver on a Mac.
All of the main links are located on the right side text box. They are white boxes with blue lettering. I will analyze the website as I go through the checklist:
1) Legibility problems- The font is very basic and easy to read. Although the text could be larger in the text columns, it is readable. The contrast is okay. The blue does jump from the white background.
2) Non-standard links-links were established when scrolled over by the mouse in two ways: the cursor changing to the hand and the text box highlighted in blue. Other links on the page were in blue text. All of the links worked.
3) Flash- all of the links worked, but when animated slideshows appeared, I had to scroll down the page to see it.
4) Content not written for the web- The content is marvelous. The library has links to their curriculum, technology projects, pathfinders, teacher links, pictures of the library, book preview slideshows, and the list goes on and on. This is really a great resource for school librarians.
5) Bad Search- There is no search box for the content of the webpage.
6) Browser Incompatibility- webpage is compatible with Internet Explorer
7)Cumbersome Forms- no forms on this page were found.
8) No Contact Information- Contact information was found and you can email librarians directly.
9) Frozen Layouts- page does not have frozen layout.
10) Inadequate Photo Enlargement-Photos were properly enlarged.
I do not have many suggestions for improvement. The site has wonderful content, which I think is most important for me. Maybe it could be more colorful? I know a background can be distracting, but here maybe something would liven it up. The text could be a little larger, as well. All in all, I really like this website and will come back to it again as a resource for my school library.
