School Library Website

The final project for ISCI 761 was to create a school library website. The goal of the website was to provide information about the library, and offer several educational resources to students, teachers, or anyone who accessed the website. Users should be able to navigate through each tab, locating the items that they need with ease. Each link should work properly and be readily accessible.

I created a Google Site for the fictional library of Sparkleton Middle School in Sparkleton, South Carolina.  On the home page, I included a general greeting next to a Canva AI generated logo of Sparkleton’s purple panther mascot. My greeting consisted of general information about where to locate items within the website. Below the greeting, I included a virtual photo tour with several photos of the library. I took the photos at my real middle school library. Next to the virtual tour is a live calendar of events. This is intended to inform users of what is going on during the school year. Also on the home page are links to the library catalog, SC Discus research database, and a link to the public library. At the bottom of each page, I included fictional contact information and a link to my personal school email address.

Aside from the home page, I created 4 separate tabs: About, Students, Teachers, and Spark Lab. The About tab has two separate sections: Media Center FAQ and Meet the Staff. The ‘Media Center FAQ’ page shares the check-out policy, book order request form, library hours, and Student ID information.  The ‘Meet the Staff’ page shares information about the librarian and the library assistant.  I decided to create a fun twist by having Mrs. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus as my fictional library assistant. Below our introductions, I included the school logos of the colleges that I attended, as well as the Canva AI created images of the fictional colleges that Mrs. Frizzle attended. I think that it’s important to share college information with students.

The ‘Students’ page is intended to be an exciting tab that students will want to return to often.  I included a link to “Sparkleton Spotlight,” which is a Book Talk that I recorded for my Young Adult Materials course, but I plan incorporate into a future library. In my library, I hope to be able to create a monthly Book Talk that I use in connection to a book club. Next to Sparkleton Spotlight, I added several photos of real students at a library event earlier this year. The students were enjoying a dessert pizza party because they had participated in our schoolwide book club.

Below the photos, I chose to add in the results to a library contest where students and staff voted to name our two library book carts.  I felt that including this showed a bit of fun and collaboration in the library. The winners were: Dolly Carton and Hot Wheels.

Next on the Students page is a Padlet that I named the Literary Lounge.  This page is for students and staff to add book recommendations or to view recommendations posted by other students or staff. I have categorized each book by genre.  This was fun but very time consuming! At the bottom of the ‘Students’ page are several websites for homework help.  There are links to SC Discus, the Smithsonian Learning Lab, Tutor.com, and Khan Academy. I chose these websites in an effort to provide free learning tools to students.

The ‘Teachers’ page is intended to help create a collaborative environment for teachers and library staff. I have included a link to the library reservation calendar, a poster request form, accessibility resources, and helpful links to make lesson planning easier. The library reservation calendar is an efficient way to give teachers the opportunity to plan when they want to visit the library.  I want to implement this in my library because I have experienced a lot of unexpected chaos at my current library with numerous teachers bringing classes without letting us know. I am hoping that by implementing a schedule, it will eliminate having multiple classes trying to come to the library at the same time.
            I created a poster request form as another efficient way to give teachers the classroom materials that they need on a timely basis. My librarian is bombarded with poster requests that often get lost in email, or the requests are left unanswered because we do not know what size poster they want or if they want it laminated. I have also experienced uncomfortable situations with teachers who emailed a poster request and were upset when they arrived 15 minutes later, at the end of the school day, and the poster was not finished yet. I think this form with specific guidelines and deadlines will make everyone happy.

            I wanted to offer a section that included resources for Multilingual learners, Assistive technology, and cognitive assistance.  This section was also a digital curation assignment that was part of the final website requirements.

            Lastly, I included 4 websites that should make lesson planning easier.  I included QuestionWell, which is an AI database that generates questions based on grade level, standard, and topic. ClassHook offers movie and TV clips that are standards-based but help to make the lessons more relatable and interesting for students. Sora is an online eBook and audiobook collection that students can access for free with their school ID, and Masters of Tradition is an interactive story map from Smithsonian that allows students to explore diverse cultures and traditions within the United States.

The final page of my school library website is called the Spark Lab, which is what I am calling my Makerspace. On this page you will find images of real students playing board games, using 3D pens, and making buttons.  I have provided a small blurb that details what is available in the Spark Lab.  At the bottom of the page is the Virtual Spark Lab, with several online resources for artwork, coding, making music, building, creating paper airplanes, and online interior design.

Overall, I felt that this website offers a lot of information, numerous resources, and shows that I intend for my library to be a very active and fun place. I had a lot of fun creating this website and it makes me very excited to be the librarian of my own school library one day.

Click to view the website to Sparkleton Middle School Media Center.