Web Page Review

The (CPL) Chicago Public Library’s web page was selected for review because I was interested in looking at a public library page.  The other two library web pages visited as background  research for the CPL web page review are the Morton Grove  Public Library and  the New York Public Library.  The guidance for this web page review is taken from a recommended article in Smashing Magazine.

I have never seen the CPL web page before this project and the first thing that impresed me the most was when the page came up, was the colors used in the page.  Even though the color white is uded as the background for text,they are only three colors, they are very distracting.  Also, the print text color used for information provided is shade of light green, consequently is not as easy to read as if was black or another dark color.  After getting over this first impression, I looked at the page again as if I was the patron.  The page is geared to a varied audience,  and available in two different languages, Spanish and Polish.

As I’m looking at the page and believe its user friendly.  The tabs on the top tool bar of the home page are self explanatory and categories for the information provided are organized in clearly in three columns.   At the right side of the page there is a column with a good variety of information but it looks too crowded and the colors are still distracting.  This web page provides interactivity between the user and the librarian and gives the user the option to choose the font point size and the language prefered, Spanish or Polish, these is a very good quality.  The language of the page is user-oriented and at the same time it has clear functions available.  Overall, the CPL’s web page has many good qualities but my recommendation is to take off some of the colors and less use of visuals.

Among the CPL web page and the other two libraries web pages, the Morton Grove web page follows all the principles of effective web design but the New York Public library wed page doesn’t.  This page is very crowded with content and uses to many visual elements and there is not much sense of orientation.   

Web Tool Review: Twitter

Twitter, a social networking to stay in touch with friends and family no matter where you are or what you’re doing.  Through Twitter a user can send “tweets”–updates, text-based posts, up to 140 characters by a short message service, instant messaging in mobile text (SMS).  It is considered a micro-blogging service, something like the old telegraph, using what is called a “short code”(40404)  This is free service and when the you sign-in you get a profile page where the updates are displayed and instantly delivered to other users who can be restricted to your circle of friends.  The updates can be received through Twitter, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, or email. 

The person behind this concept is Jack Dorsey.  The origens of this web tool began in a research and development project of San Francisco company, Obvious, LLC in May 2006.  The original purpose was to be used internally by the company and it was officially launched in October 2006.   It gained tremendous popularity and in 2007 won the South by Southwest Web Award in the blog category.  In 2007, Obvious, LCC company decided to launch this service under a separate entity which is now Twitter, Inc.   Among the users of this service are the Los Angeled Fire Department and The University of Texas at San Antonio. 

Twitter is a very simple and easy tool to use for quick and short communication with friends and family and find out “what are you doing?” at that moment.  The benefit of this web tool is that you are not overloaded with unnecessary information when receiving messages, they are meaningful and timely.  You–the user, are in control of the service, selecting who will be part of your circle of friends and when to stop following them.  To select your friends, you add your friends phone number in the in “Add Friends” and when you want to stop using this service, just visit thedelete setting on the page and click “Delete your Account”.  After you have invited your friends you can follow them or they can follow you.  Twitter has also a blog which helps beginner in this web tool to get familiarized with how it works. It also can be added as widget to your face page.

Some challenges that this tool may present is that if you have Twitter alerts turned on, you would be receiving more texting than usual. The solution for this situation is to upgrade your mobile service plan or turn off the mobile updates but keep an active account of Twitter on the web.

Here you’ll find a list of twittering libraries. 

Post #5 Content Display on Websites Made Easier

     Browsing through the biblioblogosphere I discovered very helpful information in the article Widgets, and Widgetry for Librarians: Copy, Paste, and Relax.  This article is available in the magazine Mutimedia & Internet @ Schools.  The author of the article explains how librarians can make their library’s website attractive to students with dynamic and changing content.  Not many skills are needed, just simply cutting and pasting.  Very encouraging!

     This article includes a list of different tools that can be easily used to customize websites.  The use of online videos–YouTube, blip.tv, Google Video, TeacherTube, is recommended as one to start practicing.   For easy chatting, the meebo me widget is considered a handy tool for another way of instant messaging and to show off what your library is doing, the flickershow is the recommended tool.    Sharepoint is another tool mentioned in the article, this tool can be excellent to make a connection between the library and the schools. 

     From Google, the author recommends two widgets: Google Calendar and Google Maps;  he explains how easy is to embed them in a webpage.  He also suggests that to share links through the library’s website , the linkroll option from del.icio.us is a good choice, and to display any RSS feeds a tool that can be used is Feed2JS. 

     As a final advise the author presents the point of where to paste the type of content and how to put them in practice to get the most benefit from them.

Post #4 Blogs in the Historical Context of the American Press

The interesting idea that the history of blogging can be traced to the days of the American Revolution and of Benjamin Franklin is presented in the book The Rise of the Blogosphere by Aaron Barlow, Assistant Professor of English at New York City College of Technology of the City University of New York.  This book brings insight to the readers about the cultural and historical account of the blog and analyzes a new technology that is becoming a part of the everyday life of Americans.  The “blogosphere”–online political blogs– have grown in importance becoming a new development in American journalism.  The author of this book considers that the “blogosphere” is a regression to the early American press, where the public opinion–”citizen journalism”, was carried through newspapers, pamphlets, and public debate. 

With the press becoming more commercial during the 19th century and with the pratice of professional journalism, the public opinion was removed from politics.  Since the 20th century up to date the main stream media have control over most of the news sources but the Internet now offers alternatives leading to a new era of “citizen journalism” through the blogosphere.  The American people is adapting to this new way of public opinion and libraries as information centers should be a place where people can have accessibility to be part of this new movement.