Marketing staff demos new website focused on accessibility and content pages

In the executive director's absence, Linnea, introduced as the board's marketing lead, gave a walk-through of a redesigned website that emphasizes accessibility and page-level responsibility.

Linnea showed a new home page with quick links (get a library card, sign into your account, support options), age-group pages (children, teens, seniors) and a 'what's new' slideshow placeholder. She highlighted a 'Beyond Books' section that will surface the library of things, museum passes and information about the innovation center and digital studio.

On accessibility, Linnea said the team has moved away from PDF-first pages where possible, added alt text, adjusted sizing for screen readers and compiled an accessibility page describing services (service animals, building access, talking book library). She said the project is a work in progress, with a style guide and proofreading team revising content. Linnea also noted vendor support (Communico) is needed for a few layout fixes and that staff editing workflows are being developed so departments can maintain their own pages.

Timeline and next steps announced in the demo: the deadline for full accessibility compliance was extended to the end of April next year; the team is aiming to have the site substantially updated by the fall meeting.

Direct quote from the demo: "So, we have pages for each of the age groups," Linnea said, describing content responsibility by staff for those pages.

Questions raised by board members focused on mobile scaling and whether title updates would auto-pull or require staff edits; Linnea said pages are designed to show desktop, tablet and mobile views, and she expects staff-driven updates for some content while other elements will auto-populate.