Library Website

Okanagan Regional Library

School Library:
Most of our school libraries are not set up with their own websites so I have researched our local
Okanagan Regional Library for this study. When in use our school library websites are beneficial and are
easily used by students to find books through a search bar or subject. I have attached a link to one of the
school websites in our district for your viewing here:

M.V. Beattie Library

Inspirational Areas:
On the community website they create personalized book lists for children to adults, I think this is a
wonderful connection to the community however, I know this may be difficult for Teacher Librarians to
accomplish. I wonder if there is a quiz type website that students could access to find a book list just for
them?

The website hosts challenges, such as the Read Woke Challenge and the Read Across Time Challenge.
These challenges help to keep students engaged and reading, much like Kayla’s September Punch Pass
Idea. (Book Promotion Assignment)

The library hosts other events for children such as Crack the Code, where the students figure out 3 math
puzzles to open a lock, inside the envelope there are mystery puzzles to solve and answer questions. At
the end of the series of Crack the Code they drew a winner out of those children that were left in the
competition, how fun is that?

When entering the library, they often have different materials for the students to read, their displays
often host seasonal books, themes or mysteries such as books wrapped in brown paper with a puzzle on
the front to guess what book is inside, or 12 wrapped books to borrow for the count down to Christmas.
They also display books with materials to create a craft, or colouring sheets to go along with the books
displayed. Many of these activities could also be hosted online with thinks to questions to ask the
students before they read an ebook, and printable crafts or instructions for their creativity.

They also have a wonderful way of keeping kids and families active by creating story walks in different
towns so that children can walk from business-to-business reading pages of stories. This could easily be
done around schools either on the windows inside, outside, or creating a separate path around the
school with stands for the pages to be clipped to. This would be a wonderful way to keep the students
engaged, and connected to the School Librarian.

Online:
Their online portion of their website includes, extended learning opportunities such as online sign
language courses for free, audiobooks online and e-books to borrow as well. It would be wonderful to
include this type of learning within a school based website so the students can stay connected to the
school through closures, and days off such as reading in the summer time. The public library has a
poetry creation station set up, this would be a great interactive online or in person activity and a
wonderful display to have up online or in a Library so students could create their own poetry f or April’s
poetry month.

They have an Indigenous resources section for people to access, such as information about September
30th- Orange Shirt Day and they also have links to websites, apps and podcasts to listen to. The school
website could also include links for students to research, or have a display of Indigenous stories easily
accessible for reading.

Alternatives:
Some suggestions that I would have for our public library is that the website, even though it is updated
can sometimes be difficult to search through when looking for a specific activity. The search tool does
not always take you to the page that you are looking for and can become a bit frustrating. However,
their website is bright and engaging and has a ton of information on it.

My second suggestion is that they have no access to an available and easy to use portion of the website
directed at children so that books are easily able to be searched for by subject, genre, or author. The
only book search bar is the one that is available for teens and adults and can be a bit confusing for
children. For this I much prefer the school website and how the Alexandria Researcher Displays the
website for students.

Thirdly, and I know that this is not a school website but it would be nice to have some children's art or
photos of children on the website to show the activities that they have done or are doing to promote
the interest of other children. Another way to engage students would be to have drawings or pictures
of authors and their stories on their websites so the children can put the faces to the stories and
characters that they like to read.

Works Cited:
Alexandria, https://mvblib.sd83.bc.ca/.

Gardiner, Kayla. “September Passport Display.” Book Promotion, 2022,

https://onq.queensu.ca/d2l/le/content/643344/viewContent/3764687/View.

“Okanagan Regional Library: Kelowna & Okanagan Public Libraries.” Okanagan Regional Library |
Kelowna & Okanagan Public Libraries, https://www.orl.bc.ca/.