As the librarian for Blacksburg Primary
School, part of my job is to keep our school website up-to-date. Our county uses Thrillshare software to
create and upkeep our district and individual schools’ websites which in my
opinion isn’t the easiest to operate. I
am so thankful that the previous librarian left extensive notes and
instructions to help me navigate how to change and add new information to our
school’s website. Our Media Center has a
page located on our website, but I wasn’t able to figure out how to integrate
more pages onto the Media Center’s page by using the Thrillshare applications. I decided to use Google Sites to produce a website
solely centered around our school library.
I plan on adding a link to our BPS Thrillshare website that will allow
viewers to access the more detailed library website I created through Google
Sites.
After viewing a former student’s
example our professor gave us access to, I really liked the design and simple
layout of the site, so I modeled my website after hers. On the homepage I used a picture I took of
new books I had ordered with our infamous chicks that we got to incubate and watch
hatch in the library this school year. I
included a virtual introduction to our library with pictures taken on a school
iPad to create a video with Apple iMovie that I uploaded to my YouTube
site. I created my YouTube site this
school year when I was livestreaming the chicks hatching so students could see
their progress even when they weren’t physically in the library. I used the library logo I created through
Canva to bring attention to our library policies and used it in the top left
corner of the menu bar which serves as a “return to the homepage” icon when you
are on the other pages of the website.
To show upcoming events and happenings for our library, I embedded a
Google Calendar I created especially for our library. At the bottom of each page is our school’s
name, address, my office phone number, my email address and a link to our
Library Instagram page where I also create posts to showcase the fun things we
are doing in the library.
On the About page of the site I
included two videos, linked through YouTube and produced the same way as my
introduction video, to showcase the new books I have ordered this school year
for the library. Next, I included a
video about the Bookmark Contest the library hosted for National Library Week
which announces the winners for each grade level and our overall school
winner. All of these videos were
included on our school’s morning announcements which are viewed in each
classroom every day. I also included a
section about myself with a picture and information about me on this page.
The next three pages on the website
are the student, parent, and teacher pages.
All three pages have a link to our Follett Destiny webpage where viewers
can access our school’s library catalog.
On the student’s page, I created an icon for reading and one for
research using Canva. When you click on
the icons it takes you to separate Wakelets I created that house links to sites
that students can use to access books or do research. I added sites I knew of personally and sites that
caught my eye on other library websites we viewed during the School Library
Website Evaluation assignment earlier in the semester. I embedded a Padlet on the students’ page to
create a spot where students could access websites as a Virtual
Makerspace. Another Padlet can be found
at the bottom of the students’ page that is interactive and allows viewers to
add their favorite book. I did not
include any guidelines for citation of sources because the oldest students we
serve at my school are second graders and just didn’t feel that concept was age
appropriate.
On
the parents’ page, I included our school’s weekly library schedule for the
2023-2024 school year so parents are aware of what day and time their child
comes to library each week. Resources
are linked to our county public library, a site to get ideas to support
literacy at home, and links to websites that provide information on digital
citizenship and online safety. I added a
flyer giving information for Skooli which is an online tutoring service that is
free to all students in our district. At
the bottom of the parents’ page, I added information about opportunities for
volunteers to help out in our school library.
My
goal for the teachers’ page was to provide them with classroom resources as
well as give them a place to request materials from me. I linked read aloud suggestions for them from
several various award-winning lists and linked a site that houses a collection
of resources that pertain to books and authors.
On this page I also linked my digital curation project on
Virtual/Digital Makerspaces created through Pearltree. I used Google forms to embed the material
request form for teachers to fill out when they need something from the library
to aid the curriculum taught in their classrooms.
Overall,
my goal for creating this website was to get information out about the library
of the school in which I serve as well as to be a place our students, parents,
and teachers can access useful links and resources. I hope the simple design is aesthetically
pleasing and easy to navigate. I gave
credit to Margaret Cook and her design of the MES Library website because it is
what inspired me to use the tools and ideas I did in creating the Blacksburg
Primary School Library website.
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