Tech Friday Workshop Offered December 7, 2012 at Clinton Essex Franklin Library System by Betsy
Brooks (brooksb@cefls.org)
Options for Creating a Library Website
Tech Friday Workshop Offered December 7, 2012 at Clinton Essex Franklin Library System by Betsy
Brooks (brooksb@cefls.org)
1. Traditional Website editing – Endless flexibility but very detail oriented and intimidating for
amateurs, does not make it easy to create a pleasing, consistent layout. Updating is more
difficult and tied to where you have the software (for example Dreamweaver) installed. This
option is not recommended if you are starting fresh, because for most users it will be more
difficult to keep the website updated and to use social media features.
2. Webs.com (and Weebly and Wix) - Proprietary platforms accessible via the Internet (no
installed software) with great ease of use but limited flexibility. Can be free, but to avoid ads and
have your own domain you need to spend a little money on a continuing basis. They make it
easy to upgrade and take away some of the complexity of having your site hosted. If you are
doing it all yourself and have limited time, this might be the way to go.
3. Wordpress - for a good balance between ease of use and flexibility. Wordpress has a much
easier interface than traditional web editing programs and has matured beyond its blogging
roots. It is used for many company and organizational websites, and is a Content Management
System, like Joomla and Drupal, but simpler to use.
The difference between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org Wordpress.com hosts your site for you and you can also get your own domain name for a
small yearly fee, but you lose some flexibility.
Wordpress.org requires you to have a hosting company (Dreamhost is free for nonprofits,
others can be $50 to $100 a year or more) and install Wordpress at the hosting company’s
server (simple to do). You would have more flexibility, more themes and plugins, but more
responsibility for security. The dashboard for each is similar. You can practice for free on
Wordpress.com and decide if you need the extra flexibility later.
4. Drupal and Joomla These are full-fledged content management systems. They are designed to
offer great flexibility especially for sites that have many contributors and need passworded
access to parts of the site. They also have a steep learning curve. Like Wordpress.org, you need
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Tech Friday Workshop Offered December 7, 2012 at Clinton Essex Franklin Library System by Betsy
Brooks (brooksb@cefls.org)
a hosting company and you will need to install the open-source product on your hosted server,
set up security, etc.
For any of these options, you could pay to have a site set up to your specifications. You probably
wouldn’t pay a developer to set up a Webs.com site, since it is very DIY friendly, but you could hire a
traditional web developer, a Wordpress developer, or a Drupal or Joomla developer. After that, you
should take control of updates in order to have a dynamic website – and Wordpress would make this
much easier than the other options!
So what should you do?
I especially recommend these paths to having a dynamic website that you can use and bring traffic to:
1. You build it and update it – choose either Webs.com, Weebly.com or Wordpress.com. If they
become too limited, migrate your content to Wordpress.org.
or
2. Hire a Wordpress developer and have a site created for you with Wordpress.org. In your
agreement with the developer, have him or her show you and others how to update the site.
This is a better option if your board is skeptical about your ability to create a site that will
represent the library well! The developer will also help you with hosting arrangements and
getting a domain name if needed, or moving your current website to a new host.
And – use your Facebook page to promote the site and vice versa! More and more people are
using Facebook and look at it daily, making it an important tool. No matter how good your
library site is, people will not look at it daily. Platforms like Wordpress make it easy to put social
media share buttons on your stories and site.
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Tech Friday Workshop Offered December 7, 2012 at Clinton Essex Franklin Library System by Betsy
Brooks (brooksb@cefls.org)
Exercises:
1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Try Webs.com or Weebly.com
Establish a free account. Write down the user name and password for later!
Make a simple website with these features:
a. A picture of your library with your address and phone number
b. An “About Us” Page with a description of the library
c. Anything else you want to try during the time available.
Publish your website.
Navigate to your website with a browser.
Try Wordpress.com
Establish a free account. Write down the user name and password for later!
Create a new blog by typing in an address and name. Write down the address. Click Create Blog.
Visit your dashboard – you may need to log in again.
Follow the handout to make a static front page for your Wordpress website.
Go to Appearance on the left menu, and choose Themes. Select one of the free themes (not a
Premium theme) and Save and Activate.
Open another browser tab to view your site by typing in its address. Click Edit on any of your three
pages to add some content by typing or copying and pasting. Preview Changes – and Update.
Which did you like better?
There’s a lot to play with on either platform, and we can work on improvements at the next class.
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