Title

 Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Author Recommendations

Mission Statement

The mission of the Author Recommendations digital library is to provide a wide range of librarian recommended author names to patrons of the Lucy Robbins Welles Library in Newington, Connecticut. 

The Lucy Robbins Welles Library has a collection of reader’s advisory bookmarks available inside the library for patrons to take home.  Each type of bookmark contains a genre or author name with a list of authors who write books in that genre or write books similar to the author listed on the top of the bookmark.  All authors are recommended by librarians at the library. The goal of this digital library is to provide the same (or better) reader’s advisory resource to the library’s online patrons.

Collection Policy

For each reader’s advisory bookmark in the library’s collection, this digital library will list all the authors listed on the bookmark.  For each author the user will have the ability to:

• Link directly into the library’s catalog to a list of all books the Lucy Robbins Welles Library owns by that author

• Link to the author’s website (if there is one)

• Link directly into the Novelist database to see all books written by that author, along with book reviews for each book and information about the author.

Organization of Collection

Authors are organized by genre, author read-alike, and alphabetically.  Within each genre and author read-alike, the authors are organized alphabetically.  For each author, the web resources are listed in the following order:

• Check library catalog

• Author’s website (if there is one)

• Read reviews in Novelist

Resource Descriptions

All author websites listed in this digital library are described using Dublin Core metadata elements. These resource descriptions can be accessed by clicking on the  button, next to the link to the author’s website.

Dublin Core metadata elements are also included in the HTML code for each genre and author read-alike webpage. 

Access and Use

Author resources in this digital library can be accessed by browsing the digital library by genre, read-alike, or alphabetically.  If you would like to read books similar to an author you’ve already read, but there is no author read alike category for that author, browse the alphabetical author listing.  The list is quite long, so click on the letter corresponding to the first letter of the author’s last name.  That will bring you to all the authors in this digital library with last names beginning with that letter.  Browse that list for the author’s name and when you find it, click on it.  That will take you to the page where that author is listed and you can find similar authors.  If the author is listed under more than one genre/read-alike, a list of genres/read-alikes will open up and you can select a genre from there.

This digital library also contains a search function, powered by FreeFind.  It can be accessed by clicking on the ‘Search for Author’ menu item on the left hand side of each page.

Service Features

To send us an e-mail, click on the “contact us” menu item on the left hand side of every page in this digital library.

Lucy Robbins Welles Library website can be accessed by clicking on the “Lucy Robbins Welles Library Website” link in the green menu on the left hand side of every page in this digital library.  From there you can renew books, view your library account, get library information, online resources, access the library’s catalog, and view the library’s upcoming events.

Interface Design

This digital library was designed to coordinate with the Lucy Robbins Welles Library’s current website design.  It contains the same logo, main colors, font, and a similar menu style. 

This site was created using Dreamweaver 8, some CSS, and Javascript code from Dynamic Drive and The Javascript Source.

Enhancement, Evaluation and Maintenance Plan

This is the first release of the Author Recommendations digital library. The library has about 20 additional reader’s advisory bookmarks.  Information from those bookmarks and all newly created bookmarks will be added to this digital library as time allows. 

All links to author websites will be checked quarterly.

Feedback from library patrons and librarians is very important to the success of this digital library.  The Webmaster will obtain feedback in person in the library from librarians and patrons who use this digital library.  Any feedback given via the “Contact Us” menu item available on each page of the digital library will be received through e-mail.  

This digital library currently resides on the Webmaster's website, however, it will soon be moved to the library’s website, www.newington.lib.ct.us .   It will be backed up regularly, along with the rest of the library’s website.