Island regional library launching new website
Mobile-friendlier service has links to a wide range of resources, from ebooks to streaming movies
A new website for the Vancouver Island Regional Library is being unofficially referred to as an update of the organization’s 40th branch.
The new site, set to launch Friday, will help the public navigate the offerings of the library system, which has 39 branches in communities from Campbell River to Sooke to Union Bay, and on Haida Gwaii and the central coast. The main VIRL office is in Nanaimo. Spokesman David Carson said the reference to the website as the 40th branch reflects the growing importance of the library’s online presence.
“More and more people are using it as a [source] for accessing library books and collections and other resources,” he said.
The revamped site should be attractive to users, Carson said.
“You still will require a library card to access the information,” he said. “And I think because it’s using the latest web-development practices and it’s mobile-optimized and is really pushing the content forward, what we’re really hoping is that people who maybe have a card but haven’t used it in awhile or people who don’t have a card will find their way to the site — and will be so enticed by what they see that it will really invigorate them to get back and start using the library again.”
Carson said that modernizing the website is a key step.
“I think the old site has served us well,” he said. “It was built in 2011 but since that time user habits have changed with the adoption of mobile and the mobile-first sort of mentality.”
Carson said mobile devices will be able to access material more efficiently than on the old site.
Friday’s opening will be a “soft” launch, Carson said.
“We’ll give it a bit more fanfare once it’s been live for a little while and we have heard from our users and make sure we have the best possible site for them.”
The company that developed the new site has done similar work for four library systems in Ontario, Carson said.
“I think that one of the things people maybe don’t appreciate when they think of what a library is is the vast number of resources that are available,” he said, noting that VIRL offers access to dozens of databases, websites for streaming movies and music, ebooks and audiobooks — as well as books.
“It really is trying to take all of those resources and then package them in a way that will facilitate discovery.”
Giving users the best possible experience on the website is the ultimate goal, he said, and content was refined through testing done by site users from the public.
The website address will remain virl.bc.ca.