Contact: Alicia Abramson
Manager, Information Technology & Technical Services
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6131
Berkeley Public Library Launches New Website
Features Include Improved Navigation, a New Visual Identity and Community Focus
Berkeley, January 31, 2014 – Berkeley Public Library has launched its new website, www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org, showcasing the Library’s connection to the community while providing easy access to its dynamic print, music, film and digital collections. As part of the development of the new site, the Library’s web team involved staff and members of the community from the beginning: soliciting input, conducting user testing and collecting and analyzing survey data. As a result of this invaluable feedback, the site expresses Berkeley Public Library’s commitment to meeting our users’ wide range of interests as well as providing convenient access to:
Downloadable ebooks and audiobooks
Streaming music
Discover & Go, a service providing free or reduced price tickets to Bay Area museums and other cultural venues
Digital magazines
Kids and Teen focused content
Personalized book recommendations—tailored to patrons—created by our librarians
Information on reserving our free community meeting rooms
Calendar featuring the diverse range of Library events
With an increasing number of people accessing the Library while on-the-go, the site was made with mobile users in mind and adapts to tablets and mobile devices easily, without requiring an app. Built on the open-source Drupal platform, the site was constructed with a responsive design approach, with usability and accessibility as top priorities. Accessible features include a high contrast color palate, a usable font, an 18 minimum pixel size for menu headings, placement of the most important interactive elements at the top of the page, keyboard only navigation through use of the tab key with logical and sequential tab-order, and required ALT tags for all images. (ALT Tags are used by screen readers to verbally describe photographs or other images to sight-impaired computer users. If there were no ALT tags on the site, the screen reader would just say “Image” or give a file name.)
“We really want to get away from the monolithic redesign process and have the ability to adapt the navigation and presentation of our site when we get feedback from our users, and this new site allows us to do this easily”, said Alicia Abramson, Manager of Information Technology and Technical Services for the Library. The Library will continue to collect user feedback about the new site through an online survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BPL2014redesign. For questions regarding the website, call 510-981-6131.
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