The Lower Merion Library System (LMLS) is a dynamic group of six libraries, located several miles west of Philadelphia, which serves approximately 60,000 residents of Lower Merion Township, a suburb of Philadelphia. With reading on the wane nationally, this national library circulates approximately 1 million items per year.
They are in seek of a website design agency who can redesign their current site (www.lmls.org) to improve usability, make virtual access more mobile‐friendly, increase social media presence, incorporate branding and in general provide a better service to the public. The site provides a gateway to library information and services, offers access to the library catalog and patron accounts, and acts as a guide to other information resources on the Internet.
The site must contain the following content:
- Information for each library and the library system as a whole, including address, phone, directions, fundraising/donation functionality (such as Just Give and PayPal), library hours, days closed and holidays
- Power Library icon with link to list of e‐resources
- Hoopla, OneClick and Overdrive icons with links to services
- Announcements, news, programs
- Link to LM Township page at http://www.lowermerion.org/
- Links to mission statement; staff directory; library jobs
- Calendar of Events
- Patron account access: Link to allow patrons to log into their Polaris account information (library card and PIN number required)
- Inspiration for users to learn more by digging deeper
- Graphic designs optimized for web viewing that allow visitors to focus on site content.
- A method to maintain uniform text display throughout the site pages such as CSS. Centralized menus, headers and footers that allow updating from one area.
- Search engine functionality for site visitors by keyword or phrase
- Link or links to credit card payment facility for donations (via Just Give, PayPal or other third party vendor).
- Links to social media sites. (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- Ability to incorporate blogging & social media services into web pages.
