Long discussion today amongst the web team about what we're doing about the focus group results.
Long story short, the green website screen shots you've been seeing in this blog are NOT going up November 1. We realize we have a ways to go (is this a song?) before we can determine how best to present our web face to the public in a manner that serves their needs.
You've seen previous posts that the website is all about the catalog. You've seen the post about what the online survey is asking for. Thinking long and hard about what we become "when we grow up" is a good thing to do and not something to be taken in haste.
That said, we will continue to work on features that make sense and put them up. Look for the online discussion feature sometime in the near future. We will apply this to site for commenting and see what happens!
We will continue to work on the teen site design so that it looks different (heaven forbid that it even remotely looks like the adult side!) and ~ hopefully ~ engaging to teens ~ those fickle balls of raging hormones........
Energizing thoughts are being applied to the idea that the internet librarians can work more closely with the III folk to help pull, drag, and force content that can be used on the website side. We will look at further training to make that happen.
We will also continue to work on our content, our design and have lots more to comment on in the near future! Are you ready for online discussion?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
It appears that the catalog is the main dish that patrons choose to order when they visit the website. So, if a patron wants dessert, what should we offer? People love to share their experiences and read about others experiences. Could the recommended reading lists be enhanced to provide personalized reviews and patron reviews similar to Amazon?
Go further and have an informal online book discussion. ALD has so many talented staff who are voracious readers and can articulate their reading experiences that providing content probably wouldn't be an issue. Patrons might not go to a book club meeting but might love to discuss their reading experience with others. Some of our staff, such as JoAnne Pulcino, are so familiar to our patrons that they would love to participate in a personalized book discussion with her. Even book discussions between two staff members would give patrons more than just a list of recommended titles. It could provide patrons with another reason to visit the ALD website daily.
I really like Tiffany's idea about using local (ALD) resources to personalize and enhance our patrons' interaction with our website. This could tie in with the bib lists with inserted URLs that were proposed a while back. Best Romances..Best Suspense...Best Mystery, or whatever. Perhaps a URL could point the patrons to a discussion about a particular book?
And patrons are always wanting to get their names on the hold list for new materials as soon as possible. What about providing an RSS feed that allows them to get info about new orders placed as soon as it happens?
Now that we're getting a better insight into what our patrons want from the website, maybe we can re-think how to spend our available budget to serve them. It's exciting to hear that Encore is in our future and I think RSS feed is another much-needed component that could be used in many different ways.
Post a Comment