Few things at the library are less child-friendly than the online catalog. To work a catalog, you need to have reading, writing, and typing skills that kids have not yet learned. Plus, a keyword search works best if you already know the title you want to read. What if a patron wants to browse to find their next favorite book? To make our online catalog more kid-friendly, I built a second website called the Just for You Website that is designed especially for kids. A kid-friendly catalog is easy to build at any library, and can often be created for free.
The Just for You website focuses on clickable images. The home page features four icons from children’s books: Pete the Cat, Katie Woo, Nikki Maxwell from Dork Diaries , and the caricatures from Who HQ. Patrons can decide what part of the collection they want to browse by clicking on a picture. Then, they see different book covers. Each book cover is from a different kind of book, such as “Animal Picture Books” or “Mystery J Fiction”. After choosing the genre they want to read, they see a page of six different books. Once they decide which one they want, they are redirected to the library’s catalog to place a hold.
The website is based on clickable images. Images are great because they work with patrons of different reading levels. Even if a patron can’t read the words “Picture Books”, they can look at a picture of Pete the Cat and understand that this part of the website is about picture books. It also makes it easier for patrons to discover new books. Rather than trying to figure out what keyword search to use, they can simply browse like they would on a shelf and click on the cover they find intriguing.
I also built an interactive Reader’s Advisory quiz called “What Should I Read?”. This quiz was built using Scratch, which our patrons learn in the local school districts. <Screen shot courtesy of guest blogger.>
The quiz works by clicking on balloons and coins to find out what book you should read. It also makes sounds to help keep patrons engaged, like an exciting drumroll before announcing what book you should read. With fun graphics and sounds, it is much more interactive than traditional Reader’s Advisory Databases. It can recommend fifty-six different books, based on a patron’s choices. I chose to build our program in Scratch so that it would feel familiar to patrons who use it.
I also worked to make sure our website was inclusive. The books feature characters of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, and abilities. It also includes bilingual books and books written entirely in Spanish, so that everyone can see themselves in the collection. I also made sure to follow the W3C’s Website Content Accessibility Guidelines by choosing fonts that had a high contrast, and by adding Alt Texts to each image and link to make the site accessible to screen readers.
Even if you don’t have coding experience, you can easily make a website for your own library. Free website building platforms contain templates that you can customize. You can just add pages, text, and images as you need, without being required to code. These templates also help you follow Accessibility Guidelines. You can even use analytics features to track site usage for library stakeholders. If you wanted to add a Reader’s Advisory quiz, you could use free online survey generators. Then, as you build the Reader’s Advisory Quiz, you can have patrons see different questions and books based on their answers.
If you want to help make a more kid-friendly catalog, consider building a website that’s based around images instead of words. By moving past keyword searching to letting patrons browse a website like they would your physical collection, you can help your youngest patrons discover their next favorite book.
Today’s guest contributor is Ann Baillie . Ann is the Youth Services Assistant Manager at the Alsip-Merrionette Park Public Library in Alsip, Illinois and a member of ALSC. She is focused on the intersection of Reader’s Advisory and technology to help every kid find their new favorite book.
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