Archive: Around Town

The Tompkins County Public Library has announced plans to launch its new website later this month.

The year-long project to enhance the site included a complete redesign and significant content upgrades with the goal of creating a more user-friendly and visually appealing site.

"The goal of the project was to make the site more intuitive and comprehensive," said Joyce Wheatley, an adult services librarian and webmaster for TCPL.  Wheatley and fellow Librarian Cassandra Shortle worked with Gorges Websites of Ithaca to ensure the success of the project.

Among the upgrades patrons can expect on the new site are:  multiple points of access to information, easy access to local history collections, drop-down windows, breadcrumbs to help users locate where they are in the website and a slideshow featuring information about Library programs, exhibits, events and special features, such as new booklists and language-learning tools.  Library patrons can also access account information, place holds on materials, access Library databases and electronic resources and download music and videos from the site.

"Our current site is really nice, so we had a good starting point," Wheatley said. “Our goal was to enhance what we already had."

Additional enhancements include makeovers to the kids and teen pages.  The kids page is audience-focused and even includes a parrot that squawks when kids click on it.

Library Director Susan Currie praised the efforts of Wheatley and Shortle and said the website upgrade was an essential element in the Library's goal of staying abreast of technological trends.

"We really strive to offer our patrons the most up-to-date and easy to use resources," Currie said.  "The new website is paramount to those efforts and I believe our patrons will be as happy with it as we are."

The official date of the site launch has not been announced.

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