Web site mechanics Winners and losers Computers in Libraries 2019 Marshall Breeding Independent Consultant, Author, and Founder and Publisher, Library Technology Guides https://librarytechnology.org/ https://twitter.com/mbreeding Computers in Libraries 2019 March 26, 2019

Winners and Losers Not from a design perspective Observations from maintaining libraries.org Focus on technologies which may run counter to library values and strategies Key issues: Security/Privacy and Branding

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 (Mar 2018)

U.S. Academic Libraries (Oct 2018)

US Academic Libraries (Mar 2019)

U.S. Public Libraries (Mar 2018)

U.S. Public Libraries (Oct 2018) No website link recorded (25) Confirmed with no website (1005)

US Public Libraries March 2019

Advertising trackers

General observations Library websites vary from exceptional to mediocre Technical underpinnings often weak Slow performance Insecure Invalid coding Some 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

The Library is the Brand

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

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

Design trend Should each library strive for unique design and presentation or Is it better for libraries to aim for consistency?

DYI or Managed Platform Can libraries keep up with modern design and deployment strategies? Multi-channel content delivery? Self-contained repository of page content? Trend toward no-code platforms in business arena (SquareSpace) Examples of Managed Content Platforms for libraries (web presence + discovery) Axiell Arena Infor Iguana BiblioCommons: BiblioWeb + BiblioCore EBSCO Stacks Communico Create Library Market: Library Website