Table of Contents
Second Page: Technical Review
Last Page: Content Review
This page contains Introductions - Monroe, Michigan - My History with This Library - My Impressions of this Website: Overview
Second Page: Technical Review
Last Page: Content Review
My nominee for the LITEhouse Award is the Monroe County Library System located in Monroe, Michigan. The Monroe County Library System is organized as a county library under Michigan law, but is operated independently of county government and receives no appropriated county funding. The Library System is governed by a five member Board of Trustees, appointed to five-year terms by the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. The Library Board establishes all Library policies, adopts an annual operating budget, and hires a Director to administer the operations of the Library. This information was taken for the Board of Trustees page of the website.
Founded in 1785 and the site of a War of 1812 battlefield, Monroe is a community that has a shared vision that balances the opportunities of economic development with the stewardship that is required for historic preservation. This information and map was taken from the Monroe, Michigan's Official Site.
Monroe, MI is located between Toledo, OH and Detroit, MI. I know of this library system because it is the home library of my sister. Often when I have gone to visit her, I have gone to this library. When I was able I used to go to their used book sales which they held over Father's Day weekend at the "main branch" of Ellis. I remember when my sister's hometown of Ida's library was just a converted mobile school unit. It is now a very nice sturdy building. See table on Page 3 for more information on this and the other branches.
My Evaluations was done on Sunday, February 10, 2008 in the afternoon and evening on an XP Windows Home Edition on an HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebook PC with Intel Centrino Duo and light scribe attached to the Internet with a wireless Verizon DSL connection. I am using Internet Explorer 7.0 with Adobe PDF reader, java, and flash plug-in. My resolution is 1280 by 768 pixels set on the highest 32 bit color resolution. It has a plug and play 15” mobile monitor. For the criteria I used go to: Evaluation Criteria.
The purpose of this website is clear as the name of the library is written across the top (as seen to the right) with a welcome to the library online underneath it (shown on Page 3: Content Analysis). In bold print at the bottom of the homepage is the contact information for any problems you may have on the site. Although the page has many links to its varied informational sections along the sides of the page, the middle of the page has a changing graphic area that advertises local events. This section makes the page feel vibrant and is very eye-catching. Although there are many navigational links the page does not feel overdone or confusing, but it does let the user know what is available. The mission of the library is stated in one statement near the bottom of the page without using the words “mission statement”. This keeps the tone of the page friendly and conversational.
I found this website very informative and easy to negotiate. One of the features I really thought was nice and that I haven't seen a lot of is the "Text Too Small?" button which leads the user to directions on making the screen larger. This is a large system (for more information on the many branches, see Page 3: Content Review) with a lot going on but the website is nicely laid out. There is a lot of information but it is not over crowded or confusing. Most of the features that are considered desirable are on this site. It may not be the most creative and I personally don't like that it doesn't cover my whole screen, but those are just window dressing of a very professional functional user-friendly website. For more detailed information on my evaluation go to Page 2: Technical Review for my technical review or Page 3: Content Review for my content review.
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Second Page: Technical Review
Last Page: Content Review
