Harry Potter

It all seems a bit premature to me (to be honest I'm as excited as anyone about it), but I'm sure many of you have heard that the new Harry Potter book has a title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Of course, EVERYONE all your patrons will be wanting to read this book.

But that's not what's cool about this book title. What's cool is how Rowling revealed it to the public: through her website. If you've never been to her website, you should go. It's an incredibly well-designed website in a general sense, and as an author website it's just phenomenal. It's pretty, it's interactive, there's a lot of information, it updates constantly; it's everything a good website should be.

Of course, I would expect nothing less from an author of her stature. She certainly has the money to create a nice website, but it's more than that. It shows that she cares about her fans. That she knows who her fans are.

Not that your library (or company) could necessarily devote the resources to create a site of this caliber, but there are things you can take away from it. Look at how easy it is to tell what you can interact with on the site. Look at how clear it is what the different parts are and what they do. And don't forget about fun. People should enjoy coming to your website or they won't be back. You can put all the best information in the world on your site and if people don't like it, it won't matter.