California State Library Eases Access Through Smarter Portal

The California State Library is using technology — and a newly redesigned website — to help users look things up. The work took months and was a collaboration between the State Library’s Web design team and six computer science students in California State University, Sacramento's senior project class, who coded the pages as a final requirement for graduation.

The new site makes it easier to grab and use on any kind of electronic device to look up information — pieces of California’s history, government documents, databases, information on the state’s libraries — or even a book.

“Among the new features are links that take visitors to the library’s latest additions,” the library says in a news release. “The library’s digitized photos, texts and exhibits are also more easily accessed. So are statistics on California’s 1,119 public libraries – the most of any state – and the work those libraries are doing with grant funds provided to them by the State Library.”

“The website is our front door. Now the door’s wide open and there’s a way bigger ‘Welcome’ mat,” said Greg Lucas, California’s state librarian.

Graduate students at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Graduate School of Education and Information Studies also contributed to structuring the navigation of the new site based on Google analytics showing how visitors used the site and user feedback. Library users and staff also were surveyed.

This story was originally published by Techwire.