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BATON ROUGE, La. — There are new looks on the web for the State Library of Louisiana and the Louisiana Book Festival.
"Our State Library is one of the best in the country, and so is the Louisiana Book Festival. These new websites highlight all the programs and services they offer," said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. "I think people will be surprised at just how much there is."
"The new State Library site, which can be found at library.la.gov, was built with the library's different users in mind," said State Librarian Meg Placke. "We have services for libraries and librarians, state agencies and employees, and even the public. The goal of the new site is to guide people to the resources they need or may not even be aware of."
Two highlights of the new State Library site are pages for The Talking Books and Braille Library (TBBL), which provides reading material for people who are visually impaired or have physical disabilities, and The Louisiana Collection, which houses the State Library's archives and a vast genealogy collection.
"TBBL and The Louisiana Collection are essentially libraries within the State Library, and they offer so much to the public, so it made sense to basically build two websites for them within our new website," Placke said.
The TBBL pages make it easier for patrons to sign up for services they might need. The Louisiana Collection pages offer myriad resources for anyone looking to learn more about the history of Louisiana or to conduct genealogical research.
The State Library has also launched YouTube and Instagram accounts.
"Our YouTube channel is a great way to educate the public about our services. People are often surprised to learn about everything we provide," Placke said. "And our archives have more than 80,000 historic photos, historic documents, and other artifacts that we'd love to show off more. This is a great way to do that."
Meanwhile, the revamped Louisiana Book Festival website, which can be found at LouisianaBookFestival.org, puts a greater emphasis on promoting featured books and authors, said Jim Davis, executive director of the festival.
"We're always proud of our lineup, and this is a great way to spotlight them," Davis said. "We're also able to better highlight recordings of some programs for those who may have missed the festival or want to experience it again at a later time."
Both websites will feature a tool called ReciteMe, which can assist patrons with disabilities who may have trouble viewing or reading the sites. It can also translate pages into different languages.