I had a really good time looking at all of the websites, however I really delved into a few of the school library sites as I felt they focused more on what I envisions for myself. The first site I really liked was the Bella Vista High School at https://www.sanjuan.edu/domain/334. The first thing I noticed was the use of the Virtual library picture. The librarian used this well. It had links to various items for students such as English Novels by grade level, Online textbooks, and information about citing sources. The number of resources available through the website was astounding. I really liked how it was student friendly and it caught my attention for sure. She also used links to get to the school social media sites and research tabs. I think I would like mine to look something like hers because it is appealing to students. This site was my favorite!
The next site I enjoyed was the Mashpee Middle High Schools Library Learning Commons at https://mmhslmc.wordpress.com/. This website was my second favorite. It was appealing and also used the Bitmoji and virtual library set up. She had two virtual spaces, one was about home resources reading and the other was suggested reading. On the suggested reading virtual library, she had links to video book trailers, which I think would be very beneficial. Another link was to a Flipgrid for the students to share the books they were reading. I really liked all of her suggestions.
Lastly, I looked at Makalapa Elementary Library at https://makalapalibrary.weebly.com/. I also enjoyed this website. The tabs at the top of the page made it easy to maneuver from section to section. I really liked the book trailers that were done by students. This was awesome!! She had a link to the online library catalog and a link where students could find some of their favorite authors and it would take them to their web page. I think elementary kids would really enjoy that. Finally she had a virtual tour of a Palace in Hawaii for the students to explore. I think these websites have some great features and I can’t wait to use some of them on mine.
The Bella Vista High School Library website is amazing! I really like that the colors seem to coincide with their school colors. The website provides a lot of information. The way it is set up and the information it provides gives the impression that the librarian really knows her students. Thinking about your audience when creating a website is important so the viewers are engaged and excited to be interacting with it.
Beverly,
The high school website you focused on has a truly awesome bitmoji library! I love all of the resources available and the fact that it’s well done so as to prevent its user from being overwhelmed. I think it’s clever that you chose to examine one school library site from each level (elementary, middle, and high) and in retrospect, that’s probably the way I should have approached it!
Thanks!
Gray
I really liked the Bella Vista website and the Makalapa. They were very creative with their websites. The use of space and the interactiveness of the Bella Vista was very well done. The book trailers for the elementary school was a cute idea for elementary. I remember in middle school working in the library as one of my electives and my friend and I would record ourselves giving book reviews for our librarian.
I really liked the Bella Vista website and the Makalapa. They were very creative with their websites. The use of space and the interactiveness of the Bella Vista was very well done. The book trailers for the elementary school was a cute idea for elementary. I remember in middle school working in the library as one of my electives and my friend and I would record ourselves giving book reviews for our librarian.
The book trailers that students at Makalapa Elementary Library made were awesome! I really love that idea, of having the students be a part of the website. Having the students feel some ownership in the website is going to make it more likely for them visit and use it.
I really like the Makalapa website as well. I think the links to video book trailers is an amazing idea. We also use Flipgrid for the students to share the books they are reading, but it hasn’t really been utilized so far. I think this is a great way for students to share ideas and to make connections during distance learning specifically.
Bella Vista High School’s website was my favorite also! There were so many excellent resources to click on and in my opinion all of them is content that is needed on library websites. The virtual picture with all of the links was great, and also providing the links separately outside of the picture is a great feature. I absolutely loved it!
I also enjoyed Makalpa Elementary’s book trailers given by students. It reminded me of Reading Rainbow. This is something I would like to incorporate in my own library.
Bella Vista High School having online textbooks available is genius. More schools should have this option for students.
I really liked those websites as well. It is fun to see the virtual libraries and bitmojis being used by other librarians, especially as we learn how to create them ourselves. I liked how the Mashpee Middle School website also used the bitmoji for the “ask a librarian” feature. Very clever!