According to its homepage, the Greater Victoria Public Library (GVPL) is “one of the most widely used library systems in Canada.” Among the many value-added services it offers is a blog for young adults entitled Book Picks for Teens (BPT).
Greater Victoria Public Library
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The blog is easy to locate from the GVPL website (home > Kids & Teens > Book Pick Blog). Contrary to some of the other sites previously reviewed by Librarian-in-Waiting, it is evident to the user that they are being rerouted to a web log. Once inside the blog, navigation is simple: active links to the library home page and other GVPL resources (its Site for Teens) are listed to the right of the page.
Even inexperienced users would find the BPT web log easy to use. This is due in part to the simple interface and the limited number of value-added tools offered on the site. Depending on the user, however, this simplistic aesthetic approach could be an advantage or a disadvantage. Young users attracted to kitschy ‘bells n’ whistles’ and might find the BPT Blog uninspiring.
As the site currently exists, patrons are limited to searching by the most-recent posts (found in the body) or by month of publication (listed to the right). As someone less than a decade out of her teens, it’s my guess that young users may not be keen on sorting through three-years of archived entries in search of something of interest. The site might do well then to include a tag cloud or similar feature on the Book Pick Blog. This would allow teens to browse by their various areas of interest (romance, sci-fi, sports, fantasy, etc.).
This is perhaps too obvious a critique but the GVPL Book Picks for Teens Blog would benefit from posting updates more frequently. (The last post, dated May 10 2008, is nearly six- months-old and only growing staler(!) as I write this). In recent years, Young Adult (YA) literature has emerged as a distinct (and immensely popular) genre. With eleven energetic librarian-contributors to the blog, one hopes that keeping-up with new arrivals would be a manageable feat. (See Steven’s article in Library Journal for more on the importance of currency in library blogs).
My third and last suggestion for improvement may be more difficult to rectify. All of the librarian-contributors on the BPT web blog are female. The GVPL librarians have evidently chosen the books they have reviewed carefully: most would be appealing to young male and female readers alike. An online community is still a community though, and the presence of male contributor/mentors might enrich the BPT environment further. The Site for Teens has posted the winning book reviews by YA patrons from a contest held in Summer 2008; in my opinion, user-reviews would be an excellent permanent addition to the BPT Blog, and another means of appealing to all members of the BPT online community.
As a bibliophile and individual interested in Young Adult literature, I long to say that I would visit the BPT Blog…but alas I cannot. Before I go further, I should note that the web log does exactly what it says it will: that is, provide “book recommendations for teens from staff at the Greater Victoria Public Library.” However, if I were a young user, I would be interested in finding reviews on fresh materials. Unfortunately, the BPT Blog falls short in this respect and has few other features, beyond the well-written reviews, to attract the young user.
