A Labor of Love
RSSWalter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 09/01/1999
Mt. Laurel Hartford (NJ) School Library Without Walls: www.voicenet.com/~srussell/
Passion and enthusiasm shine through a library site created by someone who believes in the educational power of the Web. That' s certainly the case with the Library Without Walls, the site designed by Media Specialist Shayne Russell (srussell@voicenet.com) for the new Mt. Laurel Hartford (NJ) School.
Dewey Meets HTML: The site is colorful, easy to navigate, and even uses frames (a display's section dividers) well-and that's coming from someone who' s not what you'd call a frames fan. The site provides collections of links arranged in Dewey order as part of the media center's instructional program. The pages of links are clearly organized, alphabetized, and annotated for easy use. Another part of the site offers student book reviews and showcases the school's winning " Battle of the Books" team. Other links feature sites for parents and teachers.
How It All Began: The site started out as the final project Russell "had to do" for a 1996 Web site design course at Rutgers (NJ) University. Her school opened in the fall of 1995, with over 900 fifth and sixth grade students and a media center too small to support them. "I chose to develop an `online library,' to supplement our print collection," says Russell, "because I knew a lot of the things we were lacking were available online." It also helps that many Mt. Laurel Hartford students have Net access at home.
The Librarian Who Makes the Rest of Us Look Bad: Up to now, Russell has done almost all the work on the Library Without Walls herself-at home at night and on the weekends. While she says she enjoys the praise the site' s received from other New Jersey educators, she finds the greatest challenge "is actually getting students and teachers within my own school to take advantage of the site!" This fall, to she hopes to encourage teachers to " adopt" some areas of the site to give the Library Without Walls the classroom visibility it needs.
