| 3/13/2006 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Library unveils new Web site; vote begins for mascot name
Peggy Vlerebome
Courier Staff Writer
The Madison-Jefferson County Public Library is unveiling a new Web site today with a new address, new features and a new look. To draw patrons to the site, online voting begins today to name the site’s mascot, a bee.
The new Web address is the library’s initials: www.mjcpl.org. The old address, madison-jeffco.lib.in.us, will go out of existence; for now, people who go to the site are automatically redirected to the new site.
There are six finalists for the mascot naming contest — six because there are six sides to a honeycomb cell, library assistant E.G. “Jerry” Yarnetsky said. Library patrons submitted 205 entries for the mascot’s name. The finalists are:
• Bee A. Reader
• BILLIE Bee (acronym for Being In Local Library Is Exciting)
• Booker Bee
• Booksbee
• Libbee (as in LIBrary BEE; pronounced Libby)
• Readmore
Voting will end at midnight March 31, and the winner will be announced during National Library Week in April. People who do not have access to a computer can vote at the library, Yarnetsky said.
New features include a place on the site’s opening page where patrons can check their library account. On the old site, borrowers had to scroll through pages to get to that information.
Other new features include:
• A blog where the library will announce what is new at the site, and where readers can submit book reviews. The blog is easy for library staff members to participate in it, and that makes it one of the best features of the site, library director Charlene Abel said.
The blog will provide “kind of an ongoing conversation” among readers and library staffers, Yarnetsky said.
“When you come to the library ... you can talk to people,” Yarnetsky said. Those interactions can include people talking about the books they read, running into a neighbor and visiting, asking questions of the staff.
“There are all kinds of interaction going on at the library all the time,” he said. “We kind of see this as an online branch.”
• A graphic novel, which Yarnetsky described as “basically a novel with illustrations, comic book-style.” In Japan, it is called manga and has been all the rage for several years. Everything from science fiction to current literature, and books for all ages, are available as graphic novels.
• A one-click return to the Home page, without having to scroll back page by page.
• Free monthly book newsletters, divided by genre. Patrons can click to check if the library has the book, and reserve a copy of it. The newsletters also can be received by mail. This is the only part of the new site Yarnetsky didn’t design.
• RSS feeds, which will enable patrons to be notified whenever the site is updated.
• Easy access to Inspire, a free database for hundreds of magazines, 200 newspapers, academic journals, genealogy records, medical information and other information.
• Children’s pages with videos and games.
• Accessibility for people with low eyesight. The late Ron Marriage had reviewed the old site to make sure people with low vision could use the site, and that access is part of the new site. For a patron who has reader software, the new site has a voice that, for example, describes what is shown in a picture and reads text.
“I am really happy with how it turned out,” Yarnetsky said of the new site.
Yarnetsky, who is studying for a master’s degree in library science at Indiana University in Indianapolis, designed the new Web site for a class assignment, and got an A.
Having the site redesigned in-house saved the library money from a grant that had been ear-marked to hire a design company to redesign the site this year, Abel said. The grant was given to be used on the site, so it will be spent on software to maintain it, she said.
Work on the site continues, Yarnetsky said. A teens Web site is in the works, and local history and genealogy will be added, he said.
The new site gives the library more exposure. “It’s much more obvious all of the things the library is doing,” Abel said. “I’m really pleased with it.”
With so much on the Web, will there come a time when there is little reason to go to the library except to pick up and return books, DVDs and other materials?
“Librarians talk a lot about will there just be an Internet library,” Abel said. “Will people not come in?” In Madison, the circulation and visitor numbers go up every year, but “you have to look at what the future of libraries will be,” she said.
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