Responsive Web Design for Libraries: A LITA Guide

When Web services librarian at Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan, Reidsma (2012) said, “Your library website stinks and it’s your fault”, he was not fooling around and he was not wrong.

In this book, he puts the politics of library websites aside to give the reader a hands-on guide. He assumes that we now know that library websites are not for librarians and that library websites are not just for desktop computers. With the proliferation of mobile technologies and the diverse size of screens that come with them, Reidsma gives library web developers and designers the tools to make changes to library websites. “Responsive Web design lets us build one site for all devices – now and in the future – with just HTML and CSS, skills many of us already have” (p. 9).

The emphasis of the book is on a step-by-step process towards making the library website a more practical, enjoyable user experience. The first part of the book looks at the initial presentation, fluid layout and media queries, and it is here that Reidsma takes the reader through the basics of responsive design. Screen shots and CSS examples are given alongside all new concepts. The emphasis is on flexibility: flexible width, margins, fonts, images, etc. Here, Reidsma is building on the concepts put forward by Marcotte (2010) in his article “Responsive Web design”: “Rather than quarantining our content into disparate, device-specific experiences, we can use media queries to progressively enhance our work within different viewing contexts”.

The second half of the book allows you to be hands-on and takes you through the process of making your existing site responsive, starting with the importance of user needs and usability testing. Then, using a fictional library as a template, all the theory from the first part of the book is put into practice. Clear instructions are again used with numerous screenshots and CSS examples being major features. You can view the library site at http://matthew.reidsrow.com/rwd/index.html

This is not a book with an argument. It is a book for library Web developers, designers and confident coders who have already sorted through the politics of the “yes” or “no” questions and need practical advice on how to adapt or design their websites for greater user experience, better content prioritisation and better performance.