One of the most powerful ways of connecting more people to their public library is by helping patrons “see themselves” in your collection and programming, and by empowering people with varying abilities to fully leverage your services. That’s why diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) measures are.

From places for building social connections to driving personal empowerment, communities lean on their public libraries. Communities also trust their libraries to help steward the growth of the next generation. Illustrating these dynamics, EveryLibrary Institute recently released the results of its “Public Libraries.

One thing that helps patrons build a personal connection to their public library is ‘seeing themselves’ in the catalog, events, and other programming. That’s why libraries are actively promoting diverse voices to their patrons. From featuring famous and emerging authors from underrepresented communities to also.

Why is your library’s homepage important? Well, for many of your patrons, it’s their first point of entry into your library’s digital and, potentially, overall experience. Just like someone who’d walk through the doors of your physical branches, you want to help your online patrons find what they’re looking for, sign.

When used effectively, a website can be a great tool for engaging your local community. Be it blogging, online forms, or user-generated content like comments and reading lists, you have many powerful tools at your disposal. Every single day, our partner libraries are creating new and innovative ways of using these.

One of the challenges of maintaining a public library website is ensuring that it continuously appeals to the needs and preferences of your online patrons. You might align with user expectations at the start of your website’s lifecycle, but people change, and so do the technologies and standards underpinning the web..

Last week, library staff and industry experts from across North America joined the BiblioCommons team to kick off BiblioCon ’23. As with every BiblioCon, the event was a fantastic gathering, one that generated many great real-world insights on how to build thriving and inclusive public libraries. Conference attendees.

A well-designed and accessible website experience is critical to attracting and retaining users online. People have an abundance of options online, yet limited time — so, they expect the websites, platforms, and apps they visit to respect their time. How? By respecting their accessibility needs and security concerns,.

As people lean on the web for more of their daily lives, it has become critical for libraries to extend their strong in-person experiences to digital spaces. From the ability to browse a collection and borrow an item to connecting with the library and more, every part of the experience needs to carry over online.

Today, designing a library website is more than just creating web pages with information. Rather, it’s now about building a platform geared toward engaging users. Patrons have no shortage of content, media, and other experiences to choose from online, especially when we consider social media. As there’s now so much.