Richard Parker
SLM 521
February 25, 2004
A Site For Sore Eyes
thoughts on developing a media center web site
First Impressions
The first consideration of any media center web site has to be to the design of its home page. The page should be simple and attractive, uncluttered. It should be easy for a student to identify, at first, the general subject which would be most useful. The name of the school should feature on the page, and pictures of student life at the school would make an informative collage for anyone – in or out of the school – who might access the site. If possible pictures should change on a frequent basis. The media center home page may just be someone’s first impression of the entire school.
The basics
The media center web site must, of course, offer a direct link to the holdings within the media center itself. I’m still convinced that the books on the shelves, the videos housed in the center’s collection, the hard-copy magazine collection are still the backbone of a well-stocked media center. Students should have easy access to information about the collection through the web site.
Curriculum-based Research
Links
Each discipline area/department should help co-ordinate with the media specialist in organizing links to search engines that would aid students do research for classes within each discipline. At Quince Orchard High School, a click on English brings up the following choices for a student: “Antigone,” “Harlem Renaissance,” “Literature,” “Mark Twain Resources,” “Poetry,” “Quotations,” “Shakespeare,” and a direct link to Montgomery County Public Libraries. A click on Art brings up more than thirty links including: “Seattle Art Museum,” “National Gallery of Art,” “M.C. Escher Images,” “El Museo Del Barrio,” “Media Centre of the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal”. Each major department has developed a list of useful sites and search engines, and these have been incorporated into the “second level” of the media center’s web site just behind the home page.
General research links are a must through the media center site. There should be links to on-line encyclopedia such as Grolier or World Book. Proquest is an indispensable subscription service through which students can research newspaper and magazine articles from across the nation and around the world. SIRS is another invaluable tool for finding recent newspaper and magazine articles. Another favorite of mine is Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. This site is a companion to a vast series of books (all titled Opposing Viewpoints; with a myriad of subtitles) that supplies students with opinions on all sides of controversial contemporary issues. If a teacher encourages students to debate difficult modern problems, Opposing Viewpoints is worth its weight in gold.
Help!
After the teacher and the helpful media specialist, the media center web site should be the most useful tool in answering questions about the procedures of research itself. Here the student should find links to tips for searching the Internet. Information should also be made available that would help students evaluate web sites in an effort to determine which sites are likely to provide the most valuable and valid information. There should be a link to the preferred bibliographical format for the school as well.
The News
The media center web site should provide direct links to several newspapers, local and national.
For the College Bound
The media center should, like the school’s career center or guidance department, provide students with a good college search engine.