It is important for your school library to have a prominent presence within the school’s online learning environment. Its online presence is as welcoming, engaging and informative as the physical library and promotes collaborative learning and inquiry.
Contents:
Your school library’s online presence
School library web presence: role and purpose
Developing your school library homepage
Guidelines on how to set up your school library webpage
Examples of school library homepages
Your school library’s online presence can be facilitated through your:
Your school library home page plays a vital role in creating a dynamic online learning environment. Suzette Boyd defines the use and significance of a school library homepage in Chapter Six of her book The Connected Library, and notes that a school library homepage:
Your school library web pages serves to connect your school community to information:
“Through their library websites, librarians can apply and translate their traditional skills for instruction, professional development, reference, collection development, and administration in powerful new ways, in engaging new landscapes. They can offer 24/7 accessibility and ‘just-in-time’, ‘just-for-me’ learning opportunities.” Joyce Valenza
Cybersafety advice: When setting up your library homepage it is important to be aware of Internet protocols and Internet safety. Netsafe has a section for the Education Sector, with The Grid offering targeted advice on aspects of cybercitizenship for the whole range from Early Childhood through to Year 13.
School Library Websites: examples of effective practice
This wiki showcases examples of school library websites from US schools, arranged under Elementary, Middle, and High School examples. The links to key elements of an effective school library website open up into real examples from schools. These include:
In addition, there are many more links focusing on what it means to be a 21st century librarian, and what ‘best practice’ means for libraries in a 21st century learning environment.
Creating a web page for your school library, on the IASL (International Association of School Librarianship) website, School Libraries Online, provides some annotated links to sources of step-by-step advice on setting up your own library web pages.
Writing school library web pages, from the Resources for School Librarians website, provides a list of annotated links to aspects of developing a web presence for your library. Design Ideas includes tips for designing and setting up web pages, blogs and wikis. This is followed by Writing your Page (with more helpful links) and Sample Sites from all kinds of libraries (not just schools).
Take a look at some examples of school library homepages. These welcome students’ book reviews and guide students to key digital resources as well as promoting library events and services. All except Scotch College (Victoria, Australia) and Auburn North Primary School (NSW, Australia) are for New Zealand schools.
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