Chesterfield County Public Library

With nine locations scattered throughout the county, Chesterfield County Public Library (CCPL) has been an invaluable resource for area residents since 1935. Providing learning opportunities ranging from job search assistance to small business mentoring, the Library has long been a facilitator of community engagement. Today, CCPL’s website serves as a central portal for anyone interested in learning more about the Library, as well as for browsing books and e-books for lending purposes.

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Challenge

CCPL faced the challenge of having a wealth of digital content to juggle, yet no suitable system for managing this veritable bottomless pit of information. The website’s user interface (UI) was clumsy to say the least, making searching/browsing the site an exercise in frustration. Because CCPL’s website was built without CMS integration, all content changes needed to be performed manually with the site’s HTML code, leading to a high rate of error and potential for broken links.

The website also lacked design for mobile platforms, alienating a sizeable chunk of users attempting to access the site via smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

Solution

The Library’s dysfunctional, outdated website was completely overhauled and redesigned, with improving user experience identified as the highest priority. Now in its current state, the website is exceptionally easy and pleasant to navigate across all platforms and fully optimized for mobile technology. Built in Ektron CMS 8.0 SP5, the new website’s content was migrated manually from CCPL’s old site-on-the-fly updating is now a simple, straightforward process..

Both the Library Catalog system and Encore systems are integrated into the website via iFrames, allowing users to easily search for books, ebooks and other resources.