At the recent Library Board of Western Australia Award for
Excellence presentation, City of Cockburn Libraries received a Highly Commended award for our website redesign project. Here is a brief overview of the
project.
Excellence presentation, City of Cockburn Libraries received a Highly Commended award for our website redesign project. Here is a brief overview of the
project.
Virtually
a library
a library
The goal of our website redesign was to develop a virtual
branch that creates a
comparable experience for people visiting online to those physically visiting
the library by replicating (sort of) key experiences: meeting staff (staff
avatars & mini-bios on each post), browsing
displays of new books (bookwalls), choosing stuff from
the recently returned shelves (What’s everyone else borrowing?),
and listening to author and information talks (Youtube videos & event audio recordings).
branch that creates a
comparable experience for people visiting online to those physically visiting
the library by replicating (sort of) key experiences: meeting staff (staff
avatars & mini-bios on each post), browsing
displays of new books (bookwalls), choosing stuff from
the recently returned shelves (What’s everyone else borrowing?),
and listening to author and information talks (Youtube videos & event audio recordings).
Along with the existing website, the library already had
a few other online outlets, with a couple of blogs (one for kids and one for
everyone else) and our social media channels. The new website needed to bring
all these elements together, along with library website staple – the online catalogue, as well as access
to ebooks and other digital content. We wanted to continue to expand our social
media audience by directing more library members to these
channels from the library website, as well as using social media to
connect people back to the library.
a few other online outlets, with a couple of blogs (one for kids and one for
everyone else) and our social media channels. The new website needed to bring
all these elements together, along with library website staple – the online catalogue, as well as access
to ebooks and other digital content. We wanted to continue to expand our social
media audience by directing more library members to these
channels from the library website, as well as using social media to
connect people back to the library.
WordPress
or bust
or bust
We had to develop the site on
the cheap, using existing library staff expertise so we decided that WordPress
would be the best option; it is open source CMS and templates can be purchased
inexpensively. With the old website, content could only be managed by the couple
of staff who could code HTML; moving to WordPress meant that now more members
of staff are able to manage the structural side of the site, making website
management much more efficient. In the end it only cost about $150 to buy all
the bits for the site – domain / wordpress template / social media plugin, then
it was just (lots of) staff time from then on.
the cheap, using existing library staff expertise so we decided that WordPress
would be the best option; it is open source CMS and templates can be purchased
inexpensively. With the old website, content could only be managed by the couple
of staff who could code HTML; moving to WordPress meant that now more members
of staff are able to manage the structural side of the site, making website
management much more efficient. In the end it only cost about $150 to buy all
the bits for the site – domain / wordpress template / social media plugin, then
it was just (lots of) staff time from then on.
Using WordPress gave us the opportunity to make our blogs
front and centre on the website. With the previous stand-alone blogs it was
difficult to get staff involved in contributing content. With the blogs being
one step (or one click) removed from the old website, some staff saw this as a
disincentive to contribute, feeling that their posts were
not given enough attention to justify the work involved. Now that staff are
able to see their work featured prominently on the library website, they are much
more motivated to provide content.
front and centre on the website. With the previous stand-alone blogs it was
difficult to get staff involved in contributing content. With the blogs being
one step (or one click) removed from the old website, some staff saw this as a
disincentive to contribute, feeling that their posts were
not given enough attention to justify the work involved. Now that staff are
able to see their work featured prominently on the library website, they are much
more motivated to provide content.
“It is funny I like the dinosaurs” – Public (and staff) engagement.
In its first year of being (up to March 2015), the
library website had a 45% increase in visits over the last year of the old site,
which highlights just how much the redesign was needed. There is also now over double the number of staff
contributing content to the website; where only 10 staff members had posted to
the old blogs, we now have 25 staff members posting to the new website. More
varied content has meant more people commenting on posts on the website and on facebook, so, while not massive numbers by any means, we are
increasing online engagement, and people are liking what we are posting.
library website had a 45% increase in visits over the last year of the old site,
which highlights just how much the redesign was needed. There is also now over double the number of staff
contributing content to the website; where only 10 staff members had posted to
the old blogs, we now have 25 staff members posting to the new website. More
varied content has meant more people commenting on posts on the website and on facebook, so, while not massive numbers by any means, we are
increasing online engagement, and people are liking what we are posting.
The
comment quoted above is from this post
comment quoted above is from this post
Lawley
Yukich. Technology Coordinator at City of Cockburn Libraries
Yukich. Technology Coordinator at City of Cockburn Libraries
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