| lauralyrics ( @ 2008-04-05 17:00:00 |
Some weeks ago, I was manning the reference desk and was summoned to the public computers by someone in deep distress. "The library website's changed!" he accused. "Yes," I said, and prepared to enumerate the wonderfulness it had become. "How," he interrupted me, "how am I supposed to get to Google when the link has been taken off the webpage?"
And then I cried.
Well, not literally, I can't deny that a little part of me died.
Now I find myself in charge of the website. (How did that happen? you ask. Funny story. The director came along to my desk--and this is partly why I twitch every time she comes near my desk--and said "Tag! You're it. Website--go.") Ok, maybe this has something to do with my dogged determination to have RSS feeds on our site. Whatever. Here's the crux: I want RSS feeds and I want del.icio.us subject guides and I want fading/marquee-like headlines and I want...you get the picture.
I don't want to have a website that caters to the lowest common denominator (no offense, unnamed patron, but really! Remind me to tell you about address bars sometime.) but I don't want to have something that only librarians can use, either. (I want podcasts, too, but that requires a microphone and someone to *do* the podcasts, so it'll be a few years, I think.) I mean, I don't want to spend time and energy (I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be the one figuring out how to get RSS feeds on the website) on something no one really looks at anyway. Be honest: how often do you visit your local library's website? But on the other hand: (she says with infinite longing) RSS feeds! Rolling headlines! Wouldn't that be the coolest thing ever?? (It totally would be.)
As an aside, when the director told me she wanted me to revisit the website's content, all I could think about was writing the help page for the RMW Scrapbook digital library...at 2 am...when the website itself was down...the night before it was due to be released. This may--or-may not--explain my marked lack of enthusiasm for this new project.
And then I cried.
Well, not literally, I can't deny that a little part of me died.
Now I find myself in charge of the website. (How did that happen? you ask. Funny story. The director came along to my desk--and this is partly why I twitch every time she comes near my desk--and said "Tag! You're it. Website--go.") Ok, maybe this has something to do with my dogged determination to have RSS feeds on our site. Whatever. Here's the crux: I want RSS feeds and I want del.icio.us subject guides and I want fading/marquee-like headlines and I want...you get the picture.
I don't want to have a website that caters to the lowest common denominator (no offense, unnamed patron, but really! Remind me to tell you about address bars sometime.) but I don't want to have something that only librarians can use, either. (I want podcasts, too, but that requires a microphone and someone to *do* the podcasts, so it'll be a few years, I think.) I mean, I don't want to spend time and energy (I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be the one figuring out how to get RSS feeds on the website) on something no one really looks at anyway. Be honest: how often do you visit your local library's website? But on the other hand: (she says with infinite longing) RSS feeds! Rolling headlines! Wouldn't that be the coolest thing ever?? (It totally would be.)
As an aside, when the director told me she wanted me to revisit the website's content, all I could think about was writing the help page for the RMW Scrapbook digital library...at 2 am...when the website itself was down...the night before it was due to be released. This may--or-may not--explain my marked lack of enthusiasm for this new project.