Web site mechanics Winners and losers Computers in Libraries 2018 W3 Marshall Breeding Independent Consultant, Author, and Founder and Publisher, Library Technology Guides https://librarytechnology.org/ https://twitter.com/mbreeding Computers in Libraries 2018 W3 April 17, 2018

Session Summary 3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. D105     Web Site Design Winners & Losers! Jeff Wisniewski, Director, Web Services & Communications, University of Pittsburg David Lee King, Digital Services Director, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library Marshall Breeding, Independent Consultant, Library Technology Guides We’ve all seen good and bad library web sites, but these library leaders from academic and public libraries choose several of each type, critique them, and help you understand what the most important features and functions are for making your library website as successful as it can be!

Winners and Losers Not from a design perspective Observations from maintaining libraries.org Technologies which may run counter to library values and strategies

Libraries.org

ILS data from libraries.org

Security and Privacy Important to use https to protect the privacy of users Data transmitted with http is not encrypted and can be intercepted Browsers flag http sites as untrustworthy Sites not using https are penalized in search results by Google (and other search engines) Not enough to enable https, but must also redirect any http request to https

Browser privacy warning

Secure site verification

U.S. Academic Libraries

U.S. Public Libraries

URL Branding URLs are an important branding element Expected domains for libraries: .org .gov .us Domains representing commercial organizations: .com

Libraries operating under .com Libraries which explicitly choose .com domain Turnkey library portals: TLC: “youseemore” SpringShare SirsiDynix Enterprise Technically possible to use a turnkey, hosted portal product and maintain institutional URL

.com domain

TLC: youseemore

LibGuides: Web CMS

LibGuides: Web CMS

Other URL issues Keep it simple: Avoid filenames in root URL https://myinstitution.org/library https://library.myinstitution.org/ https://mypubliclibrary.org/ Avoid filenames in root URL Mylibrary.org/library/home.php

Other challenges Difficulty in finding library from website of parent institution Absence of info on key personnel, or: Webforms for contact instead of email addresses Multiple required fields and captcha required to send a simple message Limited number of characters in message Messages bounced when sent (Why not publish an attended e-mail address?)

General observations Library websites vary from exceptional to mediocre Technical underpinnings often weak Slow performance Insecure Invalid coding Not friendly for mobile use Issues are concentrated on websites associated with small libraries Lack of affordable solutions for libraries with very limited budgets and internal technical skills