What do you think of the idea of libraries creating public start page portals?
In his article, Planning & Pitfalls: Using Pageflakes for a Public Library Portal, Michael Stephens (2008) interviews Dublin City Public Library Senior Librarian, Edward Byrne who has been using a Start Page for his library. After finding that Pageflakes was not the right application for them, they switched to Netvibes. The resulting Netvibes portal makes for an efficient way to store interesting and important library events and updates for patrons. I believe that using a Start Page for a library portal is a smart idea as everything the library wants to share can be in one place. Multiple tabs also help the patron find material more easily.
When I compared the Albany Public Library’s website http://www.aclibrary.org/branches/alb/default.asp?topic=Albany&cat=ALBHo... with the Dublin City Public Library’s Netvibes portal, it was easy to see how the Netvibes page could work better, or be a better source of disseminating information than that of the Albany Public Library’s website. The Albany Public Library home page is easy to read, yet has three different event-related icons: One for “Albany Community Events”, one for “Library Events” and one for “Monthly Calendar” that would be well suited for a Start Page. Similarly, information from the “Community Resources” page could be added to a Start Page.
When viewing the Dublin City Public Library’s Netvibes portal, http://www.netvibes.com/dublincitypubliclibraries#Home, it is clear that this application would be a nice addition to public library websites. With information coming at us from all directions and a group of people with varied interests as the audience, a Netvibes (or other) portal for a library is definitely the way to go. Start Pages could be a nice addition to many types of libraries but I especially see public libraries benefiting from them.
Stephens, M. (2008). Planning & Pitfalls: Using Pageflakes for a Public Library Portal. http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2008/11/planning-pitfalls-using-pageflakes-for-a-public-library-portal.html
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Hi Sarah,
Thanks for sharing the Stephens article with us!
I agree with you that Start Pages could a nice addition to library
web sites as they allow the sharing of information as well as Web applications. Our textbook lists several ways how libraries can make use of personalized Start Pages, including subject guides, library portals, organizational tools, collaboration, or intranet. I believe any type of library could benefit from Start Pages with these functions. For instance, I
recently came across a school library which created a very nice research guide using Netvibes. The guide includes tabs for Databases & Search Engines, Research Tips, Citation & Bibliography, What's Good to Read?, and Resources for Teachers. It provides students with a lot of helpful information on how to do research and leads them to useful research-related resources.
Hi Claudia,
Yours is an excellent example of a school library sharing research material. I really like this. I do think it is easier to navigate and in general "see" what is available.
Thank you for sharing this.
Sarah Naumann