Site of the Month: Hazen Memorial Library Homework Center

www.shirleylibrary.org/atLibrary/homeWork.html

The Hazen Memorial Library in Shirley, MA, has a well-designed and efficient Web site, thanks to a Web designer who is also a former librarian. Susan Edwards (sedwards@extramile.com), the principal at Extra Mile Design, redesigned the Hazen library site last year and helped launch it in November 2002.

A streamlined design: The homework center page is particularly well designed, with links to many important student sites, primarily reference Web sites and the library's databases. To prepare this page, Edwards consulted with library director Debra Roy and other staff members to find out what students most wanted, and what the staff most wanted them to know about.

Spanning every page: Another good feature of Hazen's site is the navigation bar that spans the top of every page. No matter where a visitor is on the site, there are three conspicuous links to the library catalog, research help, and a comprehensive listing of the library's databases, whether for adults or young people. Roy says the site is "getting lots of positive feedback. People are finding what they're looking for."—W. M.