Designing School Web Sites

Most schools and districts offer little more on their web site than photographs of the school, a list of staff and a few student works. A good school web site should do at least three things:

• Point internal users to good outside information resources
• Point external and internal visitors to good internal curriculum resources
• Introduce external visitors to the school

Role of the Library Media Specialist
Information specialists -- those trained in how to organize information to support efficient searching and retrieval -- should have a major voice in how the school web site is designed. In Bellingham, Library Media Specialists will make sure that the following goals are met:

• Point internal users to good outside information resources
• Point external and internal visitors to good internal curriculum resources
• Introduce external visitors to the school

They will also make sure that the following standards are observed in order to minimize loading time and use of bandwidth:

1. All portions of the basic school home page will fit on one screen and require no scrolling.
2. There will be no more than one graphic on the home page and it may be no larger than 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches.
3. Icons may not be used for buttons on a home page.
4. Home pages will not contain any pointers to outside sites.
5. Home pages will contain a blanket copyright statement covering all subsidiary pages.
6. Home pages will contain a link to the district home page.
7. Subsidiary pages will only provide large graphics by user request.
8. Subsidiary pages will list only outside WWW sites which comply with the BOE policy on Internet usage and the curriculum.
9. Subsidiary pages will generally avoid lists of more than a dozen items.
10. Subsidiary pages will generally avoid the need for extensive scrolling unless the page is a document.
11. Subsidiary pages will always include a link back to the home page.
12. All school home pages will include the school snail mail address, the school telephone number and the e-mail address of the staff member most responsible for design and maintenance.
13. Library media specialists will be the only computer users in each building with access to the file server directory into which WWW pages must be placed. Pages must be reviewed by the library media specialist prior to placement on the file server.

The Role of Principal
The school web site is a public document welcoming the outside world to the school. Just as the principal would be expected to review any signage located on the front lawn, she or he would want to review any proposed school home pages. In the next few years, World Wide Web pages may become a major vehicle to support parent selection of schools. We will invite administrative support for the design of inviting home pages.

The Role of Staff
Staff will be an important part of the design team, helping to advise those who construct the school's pages with regard to curriculum content. They will help to carry out those aspects of the BOE Internet policy which call for adult review of Internet sites.

The Role of Students
With careful staff supervision, students may play a role in the development of web pages, acting as "curators" for virtual museums and producers of good pages.