Library launches new website

BRACEBRIDGE – There’s a whole new world of reading through the Bracebridge Public Library.
On March 12, patrons, staff, town council representatives and MPP Norm Miller gathered at the library to celebrate the launch of its new website, a vastly improved presentation of the building, its history, inventory and new titles over the library’s first website, created in 2002.
“It has a fresh, upbeat style; it brings in our new branding and is certainly a lot easier to read and to navigate,” explained Daniel Bradbury, president of Creative One Inc., contracted by the library to design and build the new site.
Designed with many new features and functions, library CEO Cathryn Rodney said the new design was made possible by a substantial $11,900 cultural investment grant from the provincial government and an additional $3,000 from the Friends of the Library group.
“We’re very lucky to have them (the funding sources),” said Rodney, adding that unlike its predecessor, the new website can be quickly updated and altered by library staff. “We’re now in control of the site. And it’s all for a good cause because we wanted to create something useful for everybody.
“The beautiful part is that because we can now update the site; we can make changes down the road; we can add things, remove things, perfect things over time,” she added, pointing out that reference librarian Lynn Payton is the trained staffer who will be the main overseer for the site.
Bradbury has included more easy-to-read graphics and photos, drop-down menus and search functions that allow patrons to search by author, book title or with key words. A youth-geared page and one for teens have been included and the site is constantly active with social media functions like Twitter. The Friends also have their own section on the site where people can get information about the organization, library history and information about how to make donations.
The site has also been designed to work on a number of browser styles and mobile devices with accessibility features Bradbury said could be improved and added to over time as well.
The site is designed to allow the viewer to alter font size and contrast and Bradbury explained the colour scheme was designed with the visually impaired in mind, allowing for ease of reading with dark text contrasted on lighter backgrounds.
He said new accessibility functions can be added as they become available or as needs demand.
The site comes with a new address, bracebridgelibrary.ca, but anyone who has the old site address bookmarked will be redirected to the new site.

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