There are no recognized standards dealing with how to design & build a library Web site, & it shows. "Well," some people might say, "that's good. It's the Web. We should all be free to express ourselves as we please."

My reply is: Not really. Not if we're trying to present ourselves as professional librarians. We should develop a consistent design for youth-oriented Web sites, just the way libraries have a consistent way of shelving books (Dewey order for nonfic, alphabetical by author for fic). People expect librarians to present resources in a logical, organized way.

So here are my suggested rules for how to design a school library's Web site--especially your home page, which is the combination front door and reference desk of your site:

1. White or very light-colored background; black or very dark type. No background patterns. The area of the page devoted to content should look as much like a book page as possible. Why? Skilled readers can read & grasp magenta type on a pastel yellow background; those who are not so skilled may not make the effort. The clearest, simplest presentation is the easiest to read & understand--and you should want to reach everyone with your message.

2. Consistent structure on every page. This means: The same navigation bar on every page, and the school's and/or library's name on every page. Test: If a Google hits page linked you to any random page on your site, would you be able to tell whose site you're on, & how to get to the home page? I offer as an example of a badly planned (although very informative) page: http://carbon.cudenver.edu/public/library/diversity/cal2002/awards-pt2.html. This site as a whole has good material, but there is no clear ID, nor is there a link back to the home page.

3. Photos instead of graphics, especially clip art graphics. Clip art is generic & says nothing about your library & your site. Photos should be optimized for quick loading over dial-up lines. See my October 2002 "Chat Room" column. Here is a sample photo, before optimization & after.

4. Put text in brief chunks, and almost every chunk on the home page should have a link in it. Web users want to find what they're looking for quickly.

5. Every site used by kids & those who work with them should follow the Three-Click Rule (no more that three clicks to get anywhere on the site from anywhere else) and the Cat Box Rule (if you want it visited often, you must keep changing it). Pages that always look the same are dull.

6. Web citations (links) need to be treated as a catalog entry for a hardcover book in a collection is treated--in a consistent formula. Because I came up through the Web with the formula we used at Multnomah County Library--the same formula Kate Houston Mitchoff uses in the MCL Homework Center (http://www.multcolib.org/homework), that's the format I recommend. Every site should be formulated like this:

   Title (which also serves as the link)
   URL
   

   Annotation (25 words or less), which should mention the person or institution responsible for the site if not in the title, as well as what makes the site unique.

   Here's the way it looks with an actual site:

   Into the Wardrobe: the C.S. Lewis Web site
   http://cslewis.DrZeus.net/
   An excellent source for information on the author of the Narnia series. Includes biographical information, an extensive FAQ regarding his life and works, many photos, sound clips of Lewis, personal anecdotes, and links to related sites.

7. When a page is designed, the designer (and the librarian) needs to ask:
   1. What do my users most want when they come to this page?
   2. How do I give it to them most clearly and easily?
   3. How do I present material in a way consistent with the principles of information literacy? In other words, do I organize my links as I would organize materials anywhere else in the library, and do I use language easily understood by intended readers instead of library jargon? Your job should be to model the organization & proper handling of information for students.

Broadview School Library
www.broadview.mccsc.edu/library.html
A beautifully designed and simple elementary home page from Bloomington, IN (unfortunately, you don't know anything about the school unless you dig).

Lawrence (KS) High School Library
library.lhs.usd497.org/
A wealth of resources, and they keep changing. A great use of digital photos.

Mt. Laurel Hartford School's Library Without Walls
38.139.53.3/mc/
A nicely organized & well-designed page. I would eliminate most of the text on the home page, but it is still easy to use. Notice the student shortcuts & the student, teacher, & parent "libraries."

Palmerston Resource Centre (Australia)
www.palmdps.act.edu.au/library/resource_centremain.htm
If you're on LM_NET, you know Barbara Braxton, an Australian teacher-librarian who created this whimsical yet easy-to-use site for her school's library. I wish she would use a plain background, though.

Sedgwick (CT) Library Media Center
www.whps.org/schools/sedgwick/navig/library.html
Although the home page is a little jumbled, there's plenty of carefully selected resources here.

Springfield Township Virtual Library
mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us/~spjvweb/
Joyce Valenza's site is a good example of a page that has resources customized to the needs of a community of teachers and students. Joyce has also created a useful Webquest on building a school library Web page at mciu.org/~spjvweb/evallib.html.

University Laboratory High School Library
www.uni.uiuc.edu/library/
A beautiful example of a school Web site designed for information literacy. Note that it stresses use of the catalogue & the subscription databases before it sends the kids to the search tools.

Question? Let me know. --W