A prime example of a thriving library.

First, did you see that we have a customized WebJunction toolbar now? WebJunction-Illinois and WebJunction-Connecticut got all cutting edge on us with their toolbars, and I followed their lead. This handy tool, which is very easy to download and install from Conduit, will help you find content on WebJunction, thanks to the technical brilliance of Google search. I also added quick links to those areas of WebJunction that I know are popular with y’all (and yet not always easy to find): the Events Calendar, TechAtlas, the Discussion Boards–plus all of our Community Partner sites. You can directly access your RSS feed from this toolbar as well. So once you’ve installed it and given it a try, let me know what you think. I have been using it for the past month or so and, I have to say, I love it. (Unfortunately, it is not compatible with Safari browsers, so hopefully Mac users have Firefox installed.)

Second, we often hear from our members, “I know there is so much information on WebJunction, the amount keeps growing, and I just can’t keep up with it!” Hopefully, “What’s New on WebJunction” will help you stay up to date. This monthly email digest is simply a list of links to new articles and courses that have been added to the site in the previous month. Subscribe today, and I will send out the first issue on January 16. Definitely send me your comments about that publication–I will plan to tweak it based on your thoughtful feedback.

Finally, I did a little revamp of the Discussion Boards page. I hope you will find it easier to scan the forum lists and find the subject area most relevant to your needs. Again, if you have any feedback about that work–or additional suggestions–either comment here or in the Discussion Board Support forum (formerly called “Help & Feedback”).

Oh, did I mention that I like getting your feedback, comments, and suggestions?

Thanks to WebJunction member gefitz for this week’s question of the week. There’s a lot more to the question, so check it out and add your answer in the discussion topic or here, in the blog, as a comment.

If you’ve got a question you want to ask the WebJunction community or you see a good question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic.

I attended two sessions this week that captured this spirit of discovery through play - Erica Reynolds’s presentation on library website redesign, Lessons from 4000 years of art and Jenny Levine’s talk on Games, Learning & Libraries.

Inspired by a visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO, Erica saw how the way we experience art in a museum can inform the way we present information on the web. Having recently led the complete revamping of the Johnson County Public Library site (which is definitely worth a peek), Erica drew parallels from her experience at the museum and came up with twelve lessons for guiding designs that are both “prestigious and playful” (Lesson #12). The library’s new website features a collection of striking photos taken by teens in the community, a need a story? search box and a tab labeled “surprise!” Some of the other lessons that stand out are:

Lesson 2: Be bold. Be dynamic. Be human
Lesson 3: When you paint to sell, you paint people
Lesson 4: Enliven your collection through reorganization and presentation
Lesson 8: We like surprises. And anticipating the surprise is even more delicious.
Lesson 9: A good guide enhances the experience exponentially

In a similar vein, Jenny’s presentation on gaming in libraries challenged the audience to think about where we draw the line between learning and play - and if this distinction really matters. Games like Dance Dance Revolution and World of Warcraft teach pattern recognition, build literacy and strategy skills, and are a great teaser for bringing more young patrons through the doors to interact with each other. When thinking about offering gaming services in the library Jenny suggests considering the value that games can bring. By presenting information in a fun and appealing way and fostering social connections among patrons and staff, games can improve how people see the library - as a place that entices you to come in and discover something new. And you might even have fun doing it.

By the way - TechAtlas is free software that helps libraries (like yours) create technology plans and manage technology. Exciting stuff, right?

But wait, you ask…”Didn’t you just release TechAtlas version 3.1 last month?” Yes we did – and there is much more to come! There is a very ambitious list of TechAtlas improvements for the next year and we are hoping to release these updates monthly. Sometimes these improvements will be small, like fixing links or buttons and other changes will be more noticeable – and hopefully for the better. Many of these improvements are driven by requests from our users. We have received great feedback about the functionality of TechAtlas and we have been listening. It’s never too late to share your thoughts and even a wish-list for TechAtlas improvements, just send a message to techatlas@webjunction.org.

You can read about the changes in version 3.2 on WebJunction and you can get a free TechAtlas for Libraries account here.

Aesthetics is more important than architecture. Or you could say that to a certain extent, aesthetics is architecture, since the layout of the page is the entrance to the overall structure of the site. If the relation between elements makes sense at the page level, then users are much more likely to understand the overall site architecture.

On the old site I had trouble finding my place in the overall structure of the site because the key navigational pieces (menus, breadcrumbs, etc.) didn’t stand out. Partly this was due to the busyness of the page, and partly this was due to the color and design of the navigation modules. On the new site, there are fewer visual elements, and the navigational pieces are prominently placed and consistently placed on every page. I understand the purpose of each module, and I know where each one will take me. Moreover, I needed to do very little exploring or guessing to figure out the goal of each module – the labels are clear and reflective of the actual content. The five persistent links across the top are especially useful in keeping me oriented.

Thanks, Chris, for the nice comments and the insight.

Along these lines, there is now a discussion thread (that you can find here) specifically designed to be a repository into which you can add pictures for us to consider using on the WebJunction web site *or* in the WebJunction newsletter. It’s a nice opportunity to not only contribute valuable content to the WJ community, but to potentially get some attention for your work.

So, if you’ve got good pictures of libraries, library staff, librariana, computers, technology, or pretty much anything you think might be useful as an image on the WebJunction site or in the WebJunction newsletter, we want ‘em! Pretty please?

1. Refresh!

2. Meetings!

Well, that might be a slight over simplification, but we really have been kicking up some dust ’round WebJunction way lately, both in relation to current projects and in relation to the planning of future projects. Sweet, sweet planning, how we love you (I really mean that btw).

Have you heard any of us say lately that this is the most exciting time ever to work in/with and/or for libraries? The buzz is palpable around the office, the main WebJunction site, the Community Partner sites, and most importantly in lots of libraries all over the place, the very libraries that are the reason we exist in the first place. Sure, I sound like a cheerleader, but I promise you it is genuine and well deserved excitement.

Now, just so you know we are working hard in our many meetings to get the things you need us and want us to get accomplished actually accomplished, I offer you a bit of a visual riddle. Perhaps the riddle might soften the blow of fewer blog posts this week? Sadly, I can’t really jump out there and say the answer to the visual riddle provided below. Still, it might be fun to hear your speculations about this image. What the heck were we doing in this meeting anyway? Rest assured we do know! *snicker* Even though *we* know, it might fun to hear what you might guess. You’ll play nice with this one, right? Here’s the picture (click it for a link to a larger size if you need it):

Anyone care to speculate?

The new look is the result of much hard work from many people, in particular our excellent development team, our wonderful design company ForumOne, the incredible WJ staff which has provided extremely valuable input and much hard work to pull this all together, and of course YOU, the WJ community.

Design is a process, not an output, so this is just one more step along the path; so our immediate follow-up plans include:

• Collecting input from the community (let us know!)
• Conducting a section 508 accessibility audit (we’ve had very good preliminary word about this, but needed to get the site up in a widely available environment to complete our testing)
• Conducting formal usability testing with the new site
• Putting together a survey of member experience similar to the one we did last August (probably in the next few months, after we’ve all gotten used to this strange new WebJunction thang).

Meanwhile, though, we hope you enjoy the new site as much as we do!