Bruce County Public Library

Bruce County Public Library (BCPL), an Ontario library with 17 branches, knew it was time for a new website. The staff were all in agreement that their site was lackluster and complicated to use. “We had to ask every time we needed to make a change,” shared Joanna Griffith, Assistant Director. “It was clunky, and we were looking for a platform we could easily update.”

The library team had internal meetings to set their goals for the new website, and how they wanted to overcome the challenges of their existing site. They knew they wanted a way to highlight the physical locations of their many branches, and knew they needed an easier-to-use event calendar with program registration. They wanted to showcase their catalogue with better integration on the website. And primarily, they wanted something easier to navigate, for patrons and staff alike.

Library experience makes Mugo Web stand out

After an extensive RFP process, BCPL chose Mugo Web as its new development partner. “Price was a big factor,” said Brooke McLean, Director of Library Services, when discussing how Mugo Web won the bid. “But more importantly, it was Mugo’s experience building other library websites, the expertise and understanding of what we needed in a library site in particular.”

Development began on “not just an upgrade, but a complete overhaul,” per McLean.

The process required effort on behalf of the library stakeholders, but overall, “it was easier than we anticipated,” reflected McLean. “Having Mugo identify what they needed from us was incredibly helpful and made the process smoother than we expected.”

Griffith agreed. “It was a lot of work, but it was easy. The Mugo team guided us, and it was clear the steps the development team were going to take and what was needed.”

Branch pages feature local library communities

Key to the initial design was developing a new feature to showcase the BCPL branches in an interactive map. Patrons could search by location, browse by map, or scroll through the list of libraries. The interactive map brings up quick contact info and also directs to a dedicated branch page. 

The branch pages have the individual maps, contact info, hours, and amenities prominently displayed. They list the events coming up at that location, and include a custom "about" section with a history of the branch and a scrolling gallery of images from the location. The local flair and customization of this tool make each branch stand out and help emphasize the local community.

Scheduled content increases staff usability

Having control of the site’s content was a critical point identified by the staff’s strategic planning in preparing for a new site, and Mugo Web’s custom library platform delivered that. Not only can staff add pages and content on the fly, but many of the elements on the website, such as the announcement banners, can be scheduled for publication, freeing up staff time. “Scheduling the alerts is life-changing,” Griffith said. “We don’t forget to take things down. We can have multiple banners at a time, which is helpful, especially since we have so many branches, with different issues.”

Calendar system helps plan for future events

The Mugo Library event calendar and registration system has not only helped in the ease of management of events, but has had additional unforeseen benefits in future planning. Registration, with waiting lists, shows staff which programs are most popular, with some unexpected results. “We had a program in October with Indigenous presenters on the history of treaties, and that registration filled in days,” McLean reported. “It gave us an indicator to do more programs like this, based on the interest.”

Additional development

BCPL knew that a new website was a big change for their staff and  communities, so they made the choice early in the development process to delay integration of several new-to-them features, such as room management and book club kit management. Having a full-scale development partner means that future improvements to a website can be quoted separately and added when needed. The additional features were deployed a few months after launch and brought new functionality to the fresh website.

The meeting rooms are filterable by branch, which helps patrons navigate directly to the service they need. Custom calendars show availability for each room and provide an interface for requesting space.

Custom workflows fit library needs

With so many branches and staff members, having tiered permissions along with an internal workflow for approval of content publication was important for site administrators. The Mugo Library platform features the ability to customize permissions for each level of the site. Event editors, room managers, and supervisors can each have different roles within the system and access only the content applicable to their role. Looking to the future, BCPL hopes to use the interface to schedule in-house resources, such as 3D printers.