January is a month ripe for resolutions of change. To better ourselves, or to experience something different. Sometimes change brings the feeling of something new—either in terms of freshness and relevancy, or experience.
The new Laramie County Library System website is a product of both these changes. We’re choosing to embrace this change, because it means we can bring you the best customer service in an entirely new way.
Change can be rough—especially when technology has made access to anything, anywhere, instant. But we promise you this isn’t that kind of change. The new site should make it easier to find what you’re looking for, and in the off-chance that you can’t find it, point you in the direction for who to contact to get the answer.
Let me explain our biggest changes:
We’re offering you more information, in a more organized, methodical way.
Our updated navigation bar is a result of nearly a year of analyzing and processing results from the public, as well as staff members. You told us what was most important to you, and we listened!
In early January 2015, our web team began a card-sorting exercise, in which topics from our previous website (such as the Bookmobile, Café, and Paying Fines/Fees to name a few) were written on the front of an index card.
After making nearly 100 index cards, we asked random patrons, members of the public, as well as our staff, to do three things: 1) Place them into piles based on what they felt were similar; 2) Set aside any cards that may not belong in one of those piles; 3) Limit the number of piles to 8.
There were no wrong or right answers.
After writing down more than 75 responses, we started to find repetition in how everyone viewed those traditional library topics. We filled in spaces our previous website didn’t cover (such as a page dedicated to the Book Sale Room, or one for Paying Fines/Fees), and we came up with our current navigation bar—brought to you just as you described.
You’ll only have to look at the top of the page to gain access to everything you need—no more hunting through sidebars, double navigation bars, or embedded links.
We’re offering you easier ways to contact us.
If you wanted to find the staff member who knew the most about the Bookmobile, where would you think to look? What about if you were interested in knowing the timeframe it takes to receive an Interlibrary Loan? Ideally you’d head to either of those pages, and find the contact information.You can, now.We’ve added individual contact lists to each sidebar so you know exactly who to contact (as well as the manager who oversees that department) in a single click.You’ll still have access to the full list of key employees under our Contact Us page, because….why reinvent the wheel?
We’re going to continually update the site with more color. More information. And more ways to help you.
What you see today is just the well-thought-out bones of our new website. You can expect more great things from us in the future.
- A history of the Laramie County Library System, from our first building up until our last one (our history volunteer is working diligently to finish the remaining years!)
- Our annual reports, including the past few years
- Photos of our Board of Directors, as well as employees
- Updated weekly and monthly blog posts from our blogging team
- Librarian book and AV picks based on genre
- Additional event sign-ups straight from our front page calendar
- And much, much more.
We hope you’ll browse the new website and send us feedback about what works and doesn’t work for you. Feel free to reach our web team at web@lclsonline.org. We’d love to hear from you and promise we’ll respond as soon as possible.
Thank you, and happy New Year!