Analysis of elementary school library web sites in southern New Jersey

Elementary school library media centers have the opportunity to utilize a Web site to promote the goals and objectives of the program, assist students with information literacy skills and encourage students to read more. Organizations such as the American Library Association and the International Association of School Librarianship provide guidelines for creating Web sites. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether or not elementary school library media centers in southern New Jersey were using these guidelines when creating Web sites.Using a researcher designed checklist, Web sites were evaluated for information provided for all students, content for all students; content for students in grade k-2 and students in grades 3-5; ease of navigation, visual appeal and provision of information on site creation and maintenance. Results showed that the ALA and IASL guidelines were not being utilized and the Web sites were lacking in both overall content and design.