Building a Website. . ?

I started this week's assignment by checking out Jennifer LaGarde's 5 Things Every School Library Website Should Have.  I found myself wincing as I read through her description of unsuccessful school library websites.  I've seen a lot of them, and LaGarde is spot on, you can definitely tell when a website isn't updated very often.

When I started looking for inspiration, I started by checking out the websites of people who had commented on LaGarde's blog.  There were some really great examples that got me thinking about what I would want to include in my school library website.

One website that I thought was really well put together was the website for Lakeland High School.  The "News" section was my favorite, and included images of student activities and examples of student work.  The "Teacher Resources" section was pretty comprehensive and it was clear that resources and the website were carefully curated.

Another website that impressed me was the website for Brookline High School.  I was immediately struck by the welcome message.  It reads "You are Welcome Here" in English, and then "welcome" in multiple languages.  I thought that was such an important message to send, certainly in this current political climate.  I also really liked their banner.  It shows pictures of students, thank you messages and pictures of the collection.  I was also really intrigued by their Introduction to High School Research tutorial.  Definitely something I think I'll push for if I ever work in a high school library.

After looking at a few different examples, I decided to get take a look at the different website building tools in the sandbox.  Because I'm so accustomed to using all things Google, I decided to start there - even though I read the warning.  I figured I'd end up frustrated, so I gave myself 15 minutes to decide whether or not I would use it.  Honestly, I gave up after 5.  I wasn't very impressed by the templates and was worried about whether or not I'd be able to customize the site.

Next, I took a look at Wix.  I was immediately impressed with the layout of their templates and decided to sign up for an account and give it a shot.  I typed in "school" in the template search bar, and found a template called "Literature Blog."  When I selected the template, a tutorial video popped up and went through different editing and customization options.  As I began editing, I noticed that above any feature that can be customized, there's a "?" bubble.  If you click it, it gives you more information about the feature and how you can change it.   I found that to be super helpful, but I was worried that I might be missing out, so I pulled up Smore to look through that before committing to a platform.

Apparently I'd set up an account with Smore in September, and created a flyer for another class.  I guess it's been a crazier year than I thought it was, because I had no memory of that.  I looked through the tutorial and was impressed by Smore's ability to track views and the ease with which you can share out information, but ultimately liked the look of Wix better.

There are lots of things that I liked about Wix.  They have this "ADI" feature where if you answer a few questions, they'll design a website for you.  Then, it'll go through a step-by-step tutorial of how to change different aspects of your website.  I've never built website before, so I found that super helpful, although the website they built for me looks nothing like what I ended up with, it was nice to have a feature that guided me through each part of the design process.

I won't lie, this project drove me a little crazy.  I'm still working on my website, but feel as though I made some progress.

Brookline Public Schools. (n.d.). Brookline high school library.  Retreive July 01, 2017, from
http://bhslibrary.weebly.com/

LaGarde, J. (2011, August 9). 5 things every school library should have.  Retrieved July 1, 2017, from
http://wwwlibrarygirl.net/2011/08/5-things-every-school-library-website.html

Suffolk Public Schools. (n.d.). Lakeland high school media center. Retrieved July 01, 2017, from
http://blogs.spsk12.net/lhs_mediacenter/