SFPL Teen Blog

Katie's picture
Tagged:  •    •  

The San Francisco Public Library’s Teen Blog, Dropbox (http://67.115.155.34/teen_blog/), is an excellent example of a fun, teen-oriented library blog.  The cool background is integrated with useful resources, such as links to a dictionary, encyclopedia, and calculator, as well as pages dedicated to events, book recommendations, and career, homework, and SAT assistance. 

The blog posts are brief and easy to read, encompassing all topics (events, books, etc) in a basic layout that is extremely welcoming.  I like that their homework help chat is highlighted in two places on the page—embedded in the top image and then listed along the side in the links listings.  I also like the inclusion of links to the SFPL’s catalog that will take you directly to listings of their new teen fiction and non-fiction books. 

The only complaint I have about the Dropbox blog is that there are no obvious signs pointing to the fact that this is a portion of the San Francisco Public Library.  There is a tab along the top for “SFPL Links,” but that may not mean anything to people outside the Bay Area who just stumbled upon the site.  While there are links to SFPL’s main site, I find it a little odd that the name of the library is not included on the blog itself. 

Other than the exclusion of the name of the library, I really liked this blog; I can see the potential to make it it a little more interactive than it is (right now there's a function for comments, but that's about it) maybe by allowing teens to submit their own reviews.  However, though it's fairly basic, Dropbox has a lot of information and resources, is easily accessible, and seems to be a valuable tool for its patron base.

Emily W's picture

I really like this page as well.  All the links make it very rich with resources.  The blog is a part of the web page, rather than a seperate entity.