300 thousand visitors per month, information in Belarusian, Russian and English, modern design and user-friendly interface. All this is about the new portal of the National Library of Belarus, which has begun to work at www.nlb.by since January of this year. Naturally, this useful case in creating such a model site can be adopted by Belarusianregional and district libraries.
One of 438 applications
But first things first. The other day, reportedly, the Internet portal of the NLB was included in the shortlist for winning the World Summit Awards (WSA) competition in the Culture and Tourism category.
Let me remind you that the WSA is an international competition of the UN World Summit, aimed at supporting digital innovations with high potential impact on society. The competition has been held since 2003 in accordance with the UN Information Society framework program.
This year, 438 applications from more than 100 countries of the world were submitted for the WSA Prize. In November, the online jury of the contest chose about 130 best projects, including the Belarusian one. The short list will be judged by the WSA jury who will determine the five winners in each of the nominations.
The winners of the international competition will be announced in Accra, the capital of African Ghana. And the winners will be awarded at the WSA Global Congress in the near future.
But what should a web resource look like in order to be noticed and appreciated in the world? What components work for success? We tried to deal with these issues with the head of the maintenance department of the Internet portal of the National Library of Belarus, Yulia Kiselyova.
1. Design and Convenience
"Firstly, the new site has a modern design", says the interviewee. "It is colorful, looks very good, and therefore visitors like it. And secondly, on the main page, which is very important, the user can see all the main and necessary information: the NLB electronic catalog, the union electronic catalog of the libraries of Belarus and other resources.
Today ease of use of the site is becoming the norm. Moreover, the list of European requirements for Internet portals in the cultural sphere includes such criteria as efficiency, accessibility, user orientation and multilingualism. While creating the new site, of course, all these aspects were taken into account by experts.
I will add that modern design, user-friendly interface and attention to the user have significantly increased the number of visitors to the nlb.by site. So, as Yulia Kiselyova said, last year about 250 thousand visitors came there every month, today this figure has reached 300 thousand. Thus, thanks to the new portal, the librarians of the NLB have already completed the task to increase the number of visitors to the establishment by 20% in comparison with 2015, that is set by the “Culture of Belarus” state program for 2016–2020.
2. Language
It has to be noted multilinguism and general language approaches to the library portal. So, today the user can choose three versions of the National web site: Belarusian, Russian and English. Unfortunately, the majority of library sites in Belarus have no this possibility today.
The highly qualified specialists, who are also repeatedly checked by professionals by the way, work hard on each version. I say this not from hearsay: a year ago I have worked for several months in the Internet Portal Maintenance department. Therefore, I can testify personally and confidently: all texts, words, and even commas and quotes on the website of the National Library are adjusted to the last details. It cannot be otherwise: the presence of any errors directly affects the image of the Library and the site itself.
I will add here that the active promotion of the Library’s materials is being implemented via various social networks, which is also very important for the site promotion. As you know, the practice of aggressive marketing and promotion of your content is an important component of modern information activities, directly related to library portals.
3. Copyrighted materials
It is also noteworthy that, recently, professional journalists were employed in the Internet Portal Maintenance department.
"The fact is that we are not focusing only on the news of library life, but also trying to become a portal that provides information on all significant events in the culture of Belarus and abroad" says Yulia Kiseleva. "Therefore, now we have a journalist who writes independent copyright materials. Other employees of the department with philological education and creative abilities are also involved in this work.
For example, recently librarians have made interview with Belarusian writer Viktor Martinovich, and have also planned a series of articles about Ivan Kirchuk. Also materials about Lyudmila Silnova, Taisiya Supranovich and other equally interesting personalities were published to the portal. Naturally, all this journalistic work is just beginning, but the National Library’s staff stay positive: over time, their portal will be known not only as a library site, but also due to the distinctive copyright materials.
4. Paid Services
Thanks to the new portal, the Library has more opportunities to provide paid services. They are all noticed on the main page of the site: here you canedit the bibliography, order the electronic documents deliver, check texts for plagiarism. Services are highly demanded by visitors.
All this functions are very convenient. For example, thanks to electronic delivery, a user from Belarus and another country can order certain literature and, after online payment, receive the text in electronic form.
You can also order an electronic ticket to the observation deck, located on the roof of the NLB. Over time there will be more and more of services that can be paid via Internet.
5. Virtual Projects
This is also something new. So, from October on the website of the National Library of Belarus you can see the permanent virtual project "The Salomea Rusiecka’s Odyssey: from Istanbul to St. Petersburg".
"It is dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of the famous female doctor from the Navahrudak city, the first in the history of the Commonwealth" says Yulia Kiselyova. "On the project page you can see not only the informative text information, but also audio and video content, color slides and a lot of interesting things. In accordance with a similar scheme, we create and plan to create other projects dedicated to famous Belarusians or distinctive events in the history and culture of Belarus".
Indeed, today's reader, going to the Internet portal, wants to see there not only textual, but also visual information of the highest quality predominantly video and photo materials.
I have not mentioned yet the video tutorials, thanks to which each virtual user can see how to register on the portal or order a book; the site version for the visually impaired; subscribing to news on selected topics; virtual tours through the library and much more. One thing is certain: the new site of the National Library is a weighty information resource and an example for learning from other libraries in Belarus.
Another thing is that there may be many obstacles along the way. Could the regional and district libraries recruit journalists, philologists and translators? Will it be able to implement library services that can be paid online? Do our libraries have the opportunity to update their sites (we leave aside the fact that many regional libraries of Belarus have not acquired sites at all) in accordance with modern requirements?
At the same time, the Belarusian librarians have now something to look to. They just have to enter the nlb.by address to the browser. As Julia Kiseleva assured me, the NLB is always ready to cooperate with other libraries in the country. Including the consultations on updating their Internet pages.
Author: Yuri Chernyakevich.
Photo by the author.
Source: Kultura newspaper, No. 48 (1383) from 03/12/2018.
The article is translated from Russian by the Internet Portal Maintenance department.
