Web Site Responses
ALA
I found the ALA website to be extremely helpful, especially in helping me to understand the philosophy behind librarianship. The ALA is very upfront about what it expects of its members in terms of respecting and protecting patrons’ rights to read and to view as well as intellectual freedom in general. I find the ideals they present very appealing—especially in a country where it seems like much of the population is forgetting their rights and the ideals upon which this nation was founded.
Simultaneously, these documents help to recognize that protection of first amendment rights by librarians goes above and beyond personal feelings about particular reading materials. When a book is challenged, the response is not only about that book; it’s also about the idea of free communication and about protecting that idea.
I have quite a bit of respect for the ALA as an American institution; not only do they seek to uphold rights and liberties, but they will also challenge the government to do so.
The website is, for the most part, well-organized and easy to navigate. To me, this reinforces the message of free communication; by creating an information environment in such a way, they make access to information easier, eliminating barriers that would arise from a poorly-designed website.
SAA
I had spent quite a bit of time on the SAA website prior to beginning this internship and have always found it helpful and easy to navigate. While there is a wealth of information on the SAA website, it is not as populated as the ALA website.
While the ALA is more involved in advocacy and defending first amendment rights, the SAA website focuses primarily on its role as a professional organization. They offer quite a few excellent services through their website, including a mentoring program, continuing education opportunities, events, and resources. They also offer advocacy information and statements produced by the society in response to events. The website is, overall, extremely useful for anyone a part of or interested in archives professionally and is one I’m certain I’ll take advantage of quite often.
BCR
The BCR website is, for the most part, easy to navigate. I did have some issues finding the actual directory of the Board of Trustees, but it wasn’t buried as deeply as it could have been. Organization is not bad: it is both easy to understand and easy to use. It does contain a mass of information and services that could be especially to member libraries as long as they realize that it is there. One issue I had with the website itself was that once you entered a page on the third level (top menu click, side menu click), the side menu changes to display the subject just clicked on; it did not leave breadcrumbs back to the parent page, something that I am stylistically fond of that makes navigation even easier. However, I can certainly understand why a hierarchy isn’t displayed on the side menu: space. If a user needs to scroll, he or she might miss information on the bottom of the page.
I am interested to see how the site organization really changes with the rebranding; it seemed more user-friendly while remaining easy to navigate.
OCLC
OCLC has nowhere near the information mass that ALA does. It really reminds me most of a corporate website of the four that I took a look at. I had never had contact with the OCLC page before, however I use OCLC services quite often. I did like that on the BCR website, products offered were broken up between types of libraries that would most likely use them; OCLC does not do this. Most people going to the website will know what they’re looking for, but I felt BCR’s presentation brought the product a tiny bit closer to the intended user. OCLC seems to have a nice toolset for interested librarians who are able to subscribe.
I was interested to see that their biggest advocacy concern was advertising for libraries and community awareness; this brought me back to the more corporate consideration (even though it IS a nonprofit), because advertising is so often associated with business.
