Media Center Web Pages

Media center web pages are becoming increasingly popular in schools. It is more likely that schools have them than not. Media specialists have much to consider when creating a website. They must have a clear focus on what they want the web site to accomplish. Most importantly, it should provide information. LMS’s also have to consider cost, audience, what to include and much more. One great way to create an effective media web site is to start with a survey that outlines the expectations and needs of users. The LMS should then take that information and create a site that meets those needs. One of the benefits of having a media center web page is that information and resources can be updated quickly and frequently. Also, it is nice that users can access the information from many different locations. Media specialists should be very careful about what they put on their websites. Information should be practical, useful and easy to navigate. This is especially true if the main users of the website will be students. It is a great idea to also have portions of the site that focus on parents and how they can help their children. Great sites are ones that is easy to navigate, is visually appealing, and provides a great deal of information in an organized way. One of the best ways to design and improve a web site is to look at other sites. Some sites have their links all on the home page which are divided up into categories to make them easy to navigate. I have noticed that most of the sites are visually appealing and make the user want to explore them further. Others embed the information which encourages the user to click into the site and fund what they need. I do like that most of the sites have some picture of the media center on the home page. Some of the popular links are policies, books, web resources, parent links, and others. My personal experiences have been with the media specialists having access to a page on a school website. This creates a uniform look, feel and navigability of the site, but it limits those who want to be more creative with what the site can do. The media specialist has the task of maintaining this particular page of the website.