Community Corner

Newport Beach Library to Unveil User-Friendly Website

The new site is expected to launch within a few weeks.

It's been in the works for nearly three years, but the Newport Beach Public Library is close to unveiling its new website.

Genesis Hansen, the library's reference and Web services coordinator, said that through customer surveys and testing, the library was able to pinpoint areas of the current website that needed improvement.

Among the main issues: Patrons had to enter their library card numbers to use the website and had problems navigating around the site when the main tool bar disappeared after a user interacted with the catalog section.

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"We really took a close look at what the customers were having trouble with, and the new site will allow them to move around more seamlessly," she said.

While there has been no official launch date, Hansen said that when it does launch, it will probably do so in the middle of night.

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"This year so far we have had nearly 5 million page views on the site," Hansen said. "So, hopefully, by doing it in the middle of the night, not many of them will be affected by the switch."

Some of the new features:

  • A simplified navigation bar.
  • Better integration of library catalog, with catalog search on every page of the website.
  • Ability for customers to create their own user IDs and passwords so they don't have to enter their library card numbers to log in.

For those with exiting accounts:

  • Existing cardholders will have accounts already created for them (initial login will be library card number and last name). You will be able to change your user ID and password.
  • A new customer will need to create an account in order to place holds and access account information online.
  • You can still view your checkouts, renew items, view, place and freeze holds and pay fines online.

Along with working on the new website, the library recently added 1,000 e-books to be used with an Amazon Kindle or Kindle reading app to its collection of digital books. The e-books can be downloaded for up to two weeks with no late fees. So far, the new feature has generated a huge response.

"We have had a ton of customers take part in this already," Hansen said. "We did surveys that showed a lot of e-readers had Kindles, so it's worked out great."


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