Utah Libraries » Website

A web presence for every library

Colleen Eggett — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:44:45 +0000

Did you hear? OCLC’s Innovation Lab is going to start a new project: a web presence for every library. They will focus on the small libraries in America. It’s pretty exciting and offers some real possibilities to stand-alone’s that want to get a site!

Website in a Box program is moving on

Colleen Eggett — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:09:36 +0000

‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax –
Of cabbages — and kings –
And why the sea is boiling hot –
And whether pigs have wings.’

–Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

It has been so rewarding to run the Website in a Box program. It’ s fun to see 15 Utah libraries grow their own websites. We’ve learned along the way, and the stats for the various sites are fabulous. They are getting thousands of visitors a month, and also have their library catalogs online where a person can place a hold, or renew a book online. Residents can access Pioneer: Utah’s Online Library at every site. There are some cool, unique sites, so look through them and see their progress.

Thanks, Shelly Drumm, for all of your help on this project. It’s been fun.
Colleen Eggett

Garland Public Library & Website in a Box

Colleen Eggett — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:44:26 +0000

Colleen: Thanks so much for the great workshops, and for all that USL does for rural libraries. Our library is looking better and serving better than ever before! Thanks again for all you do. I will end with that note about the benefits of the web and workshops.

Garland City does not have a web site yet. We are rural and behind the times. Because USL provided the means for our Library to have a web site, the city now has access to information through the Garland Public Library. The number of hits on the site last year was unbelievable! Each year the library board sponsors a ‘fun run’ in conjunction with the city’s annual celebration. This site will now be used with advertising as a source for information and sign up. Thank you so much for providing this great service to our growing community. Staff attends every possible workshop to keep us undated and informed on maintaining the site. Each time we leave with even more valuable information to provide better information through the library web site. THANK YOU!
Teresa Clark
Garland Public Library

Web in a box value

Colleen Eggett — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:06:22 +0000

This has been a super value to our library as we did not have a website until this project. We would not have had the money to hire a professional or even have our technician spend the time on creating one for us. This is something that we have control over and can update on our schedule- not have to wait for someone else or have to meet a deadline that doesn’t fit. We have had many comments from patrons on the value of our site. It is a great step in keeping up with the times. We are so grateful for the ability to do the work on our website ourselves and for the great service it is to the community.
Juliene Parrish
Richmond Public Library

Next Website in a Box training

Colleen Eggett — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:37:02 +0000

Instructor: Shelly Drumm, BCR
Audience: Public librarians who have websites through this project
Location: Utah State Library, Computer Lab, 201

We will review the basics of setting up your pages, adding posts, adding links, news feeds, your online library catalog, and anything else you want. The last part of the session will be for help with your individual site. Come prepared to learn and do! This is a working session. Bring all those who work on your website.

Don’t own a public library website in Utah yet? Contact Colleen Eggett ceggett@utah.gov
See details about the project

Domain Registry of America- don't get scammed

Colleen Eggett — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:55:38 +0000

I received notice today that one of us whos name shall remain nameless just got scammed by Domain Registry of America. They are sending out notices to websites that need to be renewed soon asking for $30, three times the price we’re paying.

DON”T GET SCAMMED! There are over 100,000 posts on google about this scam. See: http://trinaallen.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/domain-registry-of-america-scam/
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/domainnamescams.htm
Federal Trade Commission: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/12/domainreg.shtm

What you should do:

A. Throw away the letter if you received it
B. Request your $ back if you already paid

C. If you want to move away from us you can transfer your website to your city’s hosting service for free and pay bluehost or another vendor the $10 a year for the domain registration. You can transfer your account at any time without charge if you are going to your city’s site. There’s never a good reason to get scammed.

Utah Photos in Online Government Digital Libraries

Ray Matthews — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:16:48 +0000

Are you in need of that perfect Utah photo for your library website? Did you know that U.S. Federal government agencies offer some of the richest collections of photos relating to Utah? If you rely on Google Images for finding photos of Utah, you’re missing the big picture.

The Bureau of Land Management, for example, has recently launched an enhanced version of their BLM Photo Library, http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/bpd.html, that contains 60,000 digital photographs in the public domain of landscapes and historical images that primarily of public lands in 12 Western state including Utah. The Utah photos include those of arches, rock formations, scenery, rangeland, wild mustangs, cowboys, Indian rock art, and oil and mineral extraction. The collection cannot be browsed and retrieving images using the search is dicey because search terms have to match those in the limited metadata associated with each photo. Searches for features and places seem to retrieve the best results. Because the photos are in the public domain, this may be a great resource for teachers, webmasters, local governments, and those needing photos for tourism and related needs. A shopping cart feature allows users to collect several images and then download them in a compressed folder.
Some other federal government agencies that have large public collections of photographs of scenes in Utah include: