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Welcome to the new Lincoln Trail Libraries
System Web site. It
has taken us much longer to launch this than any of us ever planned. However,
it is now launched and we hope that all of our visitors will
enjoy the new features that are currently available and those that
will be added.
The home page of the site is designed as a
futuristic city with Lincoln Trail, member libraries and residents
of East Central Illinois at the hub. Each building in the city represents an important section
of the Web site. The sections are: About LTLS; Our Partners;
News, Events, Issues; For the Public; Publications; and Member Services. Please
note that each section is also color coded so that you will quickly
know which part of the Web site that you are in. The center
of the city provides the basic navigation for each of the sections. Just
mouse over one of the buildings and the center navigation panel
changes so that you can go directly to the topic that you desire.
Another important feature of the new site
is the direct navigation to the most often used parts of the site. This navigation is
found at the top of the home page and at the top of every page in
the site. The tools are Quick Links (for direct access to popular
pages) and direct access to resources such as the LINC catalog, Media
Mall, Questions (AskAway), Databases, and a direct search of the LINC
Catalog. Also at the top on the home page and every page is
the LTLS logo, which will take visitors directly back to the home
page.
The features section of the home page will
change on a monthly basis. These
features will be topic driven. For November the features will
be this article and a couple of articles on cooperation. In
December the features will highlight Diversity and Community Outreach
with January featuring Social Networking. Other ideas for the
section include Grants, Education and Training, Marketing, and library
topics of interest. The features section will be written by
LTLS staff, as well as by guest authors. If you are interested
in writing a feature article, please let me know.
Several blogs are now located on the home
page in an ongoing effort to keep member libraries informed about
issues of note for our members. Quick
Connections is a blog, and LT staff will update QC on a daily basis. However,
because our members really enjoy having QC delivered to their personal
mailboxes, we will continue to distribute a week’s worth of
postings every Friday. QC no longer includes the calendar, as
there is a separate calendar just below the QC articles. Other
information that was previously in QC may appear in other new blogs
including: About LTLS Members, LTLS Services, Library Jobs,
LINC Update, and Working Together. Please continue to contribute
items the way you always have for posting in QC or one of the other
blogs.
Three other new home page sections are the
Weekly Survey, a link to online discussion groups, and a search
box for worldcat.org. The
weekly surveys are designed to be quick and easy-to-answer questions
that libraries might have of each other or that LTLS might have of
our members. We hope that they will elicit fun and interesting
responses. The search box for worldcat.org will allow our visitors
to immediately search for resources from the broader library community
and be re-directed back to the LINC catalog if that is the preference
of the individual. Finally, note the discussion forums. LTLS
currently has forums on the topics of General Announcements, Library
Services, and Library Exchange. We are hoping to add other forums
for our members. Forums might include youth and children’s
services issues. To set up a forum, please contact Joe Sciacca
at jsciac@lincolntrail.info.
The remaining part of the site delves deeper
into content about each of our major site sections. Navigation for all the subsections
is managed by a menu on the right side of each page. At the top of
the menu, a color bar lets you navigate to other sections of the site. Also
on the right side of each page is a box for adding current and
important information.
I hope you enjoy exploring our new site. Please provide us
your suggestions on what to include and ask us questions if you are
unsure of where to find things. Contact me, Karen Wilkinson,
or any Consultant at LTLS. We want to help. Enjoy.
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