Big House Library
By Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 12/1/2008
One of my favorite things about Twitter is making connections—with great new people, ideas, and sites, like this one. The online portal of the Casa Grande High School library in Petaluma, CA, Big House Library was created by Anna Koval, the school’s teacher-librarian, who’s also a Twitter friend. Made with free Web tool Weebly, Big House features a clean, spare design, proving less is more, and more white space is even better. Just by logging onto the home page you know this is no typical district-issue product; it’s flat-out cool, which might be why kids are flocking to the site, according to a post on the Big House blog.
A range of offerings are served up, often with humor and a 2.0 twist and always brimming with enthusiasm. Koval is an unabashed user of exclamation marks. They’re everywhere. There’s the “Flix” page—“Think a video of a library would be boring? Think again!”—Google gadgets, and fun PollDaddy surveys, one on favorite holiday foods. Tofurkey, anyone? “Photos” links to a Flickr page featuring student work.
Big House Library! Check it out!
