Design-o-licious is how I'd term this website!

Am I a sucker for a good looking online presence? You bet. And this is one of the best I've seen for a while.

Who'd they get to do this thing? In any case, the navigation is very clear and nothing seems jumbled or crammed in. In fact, the entire effect is one of restraint.

There's a good calendar function. Library blogs are extremely well integrated. You can sign up for the newsletter in a relatively painless way. Oddly enough, while the "News" is prominent enough, it links to announcements in PDFs!

On the minus side, the catalog could be better integrated and people who require a searchbox on the home page are going to be disappointed.

All in all though, an excellent site.

A website service that connects public libraries and their patrons by handling the programming for library events, blogs, contact and feedback, RSS feeds and custom web-enabled databases. Free to qualifying public libraries.

Site completely redesigned in February 2007, but continually updating elements and segments. From the perspective of our Web Services team, a couple of the things we really like about our site is the modular design that allows us to make subtle changes easily without having to do a complete redesign and our Content Management System created in-house that helps us keep the content current. Some Web 2.0 features have been incorporated into site -- such as user feedback mechanisms, community library blogs, rss feeds, downloadables and streaming content -- and hoping to expand Web 2.0 features to our catalog.

Feedback on site from library community always greatly appreciated.

Plinkit is the web authoring environment that public libraries in partner states use to create smart, new web sites for their patrons. Plinkit stands for "Public Library Interface Kit." It's also a fun word to say. Plinkit is built using Plone, an open-source content management system.

Public library web sites are created and edited right through the web, using built-in text editors and other powerful features that make a tough job simple and give patrons a clean, usable, web site where the information delivery is the true and proper focus. Feel free to check out the demo version (http://demo.plinkit.org/).

The Plinkit Collaborative is a membership organization (at the state level) that formed in July 2006. The goal of the Collaborative is to provide Plinkit to public libraries beyond Oregon (where Plinkit started) and to pool funds in support of software development, training, documentation, and marketing activities.

As of April 2007, four states currently participate in the Collaborative: Colorado (http://www.colibraries.org/), Illinois, Oregon (http://oregon.plinkit.org/), and Texas.