Building a Library Web Page in Destiny Melissa Ahart & Michael Dodes

By the end of this workshop, you will... Understand the importance of a clean and simple library web page to advertise your program and resources. Learn to write some simple HTML code. Painlessly experiment with some Web 2.0 tools, like image sharing and social bookmarking. Have your own library home page live and publicly available on Destiny.

Why build a library homepage? 1.To provide your students, teachers, and faculty with basic information about your program. 2.To create a portal for commonly accessed information: helpful links and database access 3.Providing 24/7 access to your resources. 4.To start building a professional public face for your exemplary library program!

Basic library homepage ingredients School name & contact information Librarian name & contact information Catalog access Database links Links to get your patrons started in their research (and beyond Google!) A connection to the public library systems Hours Upcoming events & library news

Some homepage examples Good homepages East Side Middle School Library Professional and clear Greece Athens Media Center Manages a lot of information well Not-so-good homepages West Orient Middle School Library Unprofessional & disorganized Benold Middle School Library Overwhelming & confusing

But how to get started? Use Destiny to get the basic info online TODAY! Don't be afraid to visit other pages and borrow ideas - it's the best way to learn and serve your students!

Homepage templates automation.wikispaces.com/Home+Page+Templateshttp://library- automation.wikispaces.com/Home+Page+Templates Basic templates for elementary, middle, and high school: No knowledge of HTML necessary Customizable templates for elementary, middle, high school, and campus schools: Need to be able to use HTMl to format a link and a bulleted list item... instructions included

Quick and Easy Intro to HTML HTML code is a mark-up language that tells a browser what a web page should look like HTML is made up of tags Most tags need to open and close Some tags contain elements that give further instructions

Anatomy of an HTML tag Brooklyn Public Library (list item in an unordered or bulleted list) Brooklyn Public Library (link)

Nesting HTML tags Brooklyn Public Library New York Public Library This code will look like this in a web browser: Brooklyn Public Library New York Public Library

Host a photo with NYC SLS at Photobucket Username: NYCSLS Password: nycsls1 Share a photo of your school library, exemplary bulletin board, book display, or student work! Please, no students in these photos, for their safety. DOE guidelines for posting photos of students safely are strict and will not be covered here.

Free databases for all NYC schools NOVEL NY: Gale and EBSCO databases Register at or get help with your existing account at NOVEL gives each member library its own individual link to get into these databases and password set Teaching Books ( Books in Print (

Customizable features Widgets (What are they anyway?!) Images (embedded photo, presentation, or gallery) Feedback forms Sound (music/podcasts) News readers/RSS Google Calendar Embedded video (*Strongly Not Advised*) The more you add to your Destiny page the slower it will load which will affect those with older computers and/or slower connections. Remember: too much can become clutter!

Where do MY links go? 1.Links added in Destiny will appear below the home page template (See Michael's Destiny home page) See Michael's Destiny home page) 2.Use a social bookmarking site (Delicious or Portaportal) to manage a large number of links - only the most vital and likely to be used should be on your Destiny page (See Melissa's Delicious page)See Melissa's Delicious page 3.Set up a wiki (Wikispaces) for pathfinders and other documents you've created for specific subjects or classes 4.Your Destiny page is a growing creation - update it as needed including links with some frequency

Delicious/Diigo (Is this really English?) Social bookmarking means: Creating pathfinders in 5 minutes Sharing lots of sources on a topic easily Minimizing web page clutter Maximizing resources available to patrons

Resources Destiny Related Pages Destiny Templates automation.wikispaces.com/Home+Page+Templateshttp://library- automation.wikispaces.com/Home+Page+Templates Michael Dodes's Destiny Page (Samuel Gompers HS) Melissa Ahart's Destiny Page (M.S. 88) Photohosting resource Photobucket

Resources (cont'd) Good Webpage Design Examples East Side Middle School Library Greece Athena Media Center Bad Webpage Design Examples Benold Middle School Library West Orient Middle School Library

Resources (cont'd) Link Management Delicious Portaportal Diigo Wikispaces