[Web4lib] city swallows library website

[Louise Alcorn]

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Mutch
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 9:02 AM
To: rballiot at oceanstatelibrarian.com
Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] city swallows library website

* Information Novices - Let's face it, most government organizations are
focused on delivery of services, not organization and presentation of
information. The people making decisions about how information should be
organized and presented don't have a strong background in those areas
and the web sites reflect that.


Excellent points, Andrew.  All of which reiterate my earlier point for
having librarians involved in the presentation of municipal information.
Our professional expertise can be valuable to city governments by
offering a service-oriented perspective which advocates for citizen
access to public information, which is another reason for librarians to
gently elbow their way onto any city-wide web design committees or the
like.  We can offer a (sometimes) unique and useful perspective in the
design (or re-design) process.  

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Louise E. Alcorn
Reference Technology Librarian
West Des Moines Public Library
4000 Mills Civic Pkwy
West Des Moines IA 50265
(515) 222-3573      louise.alcorn at wdm-ia.com
http://www.wdmlibrary.org