What makes a great public library website?
You know that moment when a patron walks up to your reference desk, slightly frazzled, and says, "I tried to find this on your website, but I was a bit overwhelmed.
Craft CMS, Library, Information Architecture, Visual DesignBlog
You know that moment when a patron walks up to your reference desk, slightly frazzled, and says, "I tried to find this on your website, but I was a bit overwhelmed.
Sound familiar?
As a librarian myself, I've learned something over 25+ years of building library websites: The best library websites work exactly like you do at the reference desk.
Think about it. When someone approaches your desk, you don't share every resource immediately. You listen, understand what they need, and guide them to exactly the right place. You're warm and welcoming, but you also know how to cut through the noise and get them where they need to go.
A great library website should do the same thing. Here's what that looks like in practice:
Plan information architecture. Just like you organize your physical space so patrons can find what they need, your website needs logical, intuitive navigation that makes sense to visitors.
Choose the right platform/CMS. You need a content management system that's as reliable and user-friendly as your circulation system. That's why we use Craft CMS. It's secure, flexible, and won't leave you stuck with outdated plugins.
Focus on key features. Easy catalog searching, event calendars with registration, digital resource access, and account management. The essentials your patrons actually use, working seamlessly together.
Design best practices. Clean, professional design that reflects your library's welcoming atmosphere. Clear typography, consistent branding, and layouts that guide visitors naturally to what they need.
Mobile-friendly everything. Your patrons are checking hours and renewing books from their phones in the grocery store checkout line. If your site doesn't work beautifully on mobile, you're losing them.
Integrate with library tools. Your website should connect smoothly with your catalog, your calendar, your widgets, and your digital collections—no more sending patrons to five different systems with five different logins.
Accessibility for all. Every patron deserves equal access—screen readers, keyboard navigation, good contrast, adjustable text. Not just WCAG compliance, but genuinely usable for everyone.
Trust me, I understand the librarian instinct to make all your wonderful resources visible and available. In library school, we're taught to be generous with information, to anticipate every possible need.
Your website can do the same. Clean, clear navigation that gets patrons where they need to go. Everything is still there—just organized so people can actually find it.
At Clearpeak, we've been building public library websites since they’ve been a thing.
Recent library websites we've built include Montague Public Libraries, Chelmsford Public Library, Leominster Public Library, Gladys Kelly Library, and Forbush Memorial Library. Each one is custom-designed to serve their unique community while following the principles that make library websites actually work for patrons.
I know your world. I understand your patrons' needs, your budget realities, your staffing challenges. Most importantly, I know you want your website to serve your community as beautifully as you do every day.
Let's work together
Ready for a library website that works as hard as you do? I'd love to show you what's possible.
—Jim Woodman
Founder & Director of User Experience (and fellow librarian)
P.S. We now offer complete branding. Logos, style guides, social media icons, materials you can use across print and digital—everything coordinated so your library presents a cohesive, professional image everywhere.
Praise
Jim and his team responded quickly to all suggestions and exceeded expectations on all fronts. The team at Clearpeak worked with us to completely redesign and modernize our website in a way that is user friendly and does all the we require and more! We now have a site that is easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and customizable for whatever may come.Nicole Piermarini, Acting Director, Leominster Public Library
Jim and his team responded quickly to all suggestions and exceeded expectations on all fronts. No request was too big or too small. They’ve even worked with us after the project was completed to provide additional support as needed. We highly recommend them!
Our site was a mess! Jim and his team came in and walked us through the process of completely rethinking our site. Now we have a very logical, clean and well-utilized site that is the ‘go to’ place to find out anything and everything about our research alliance. This was super important since our enterprise covers several institutions, academia (Emory and GeorgiaTech) and a private non-profit hospital (Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta).Barbara W. Kilbourne, RN, MPH, Manager, Business Operations, Atlanta Pediatric Research Alliance
Working with Clearpeak was great! They were very flexible and patient when our project took longer than planned. Their work was meticulous and they were great communicators. We highly recommend them!Ben Hires, Director of Programs, Boston Children's Chorus
We couldn’t be happier. Clearpeak understood exactly what we needed for our site redesign. The new design is clean, accessible, and user-friendly. Clearpeak is easy to work with and quick to respond to questions and requests. We couldn’t be happier.Madeline Bergstrom, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications, Landmark College
Our sincere thanks to Jim and his team! Working with Jim and his team from Clearpeak on the redesign of the Westwood Public Library's website has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Jim's technical expertise and understanding of public libraries were invaluable as we navigated new territory with the redesign of the library's website. Jim and his team are collaborative, responsive and knowledgeable, and their guidance and support enabled us to successfully launch our new Westwood Public Library website.Tricia Perry, Director, Westwood Public Library
The site looks great and works perfectly on both desktop and mobile. The Clearpeak team worked with us to design a site that is visually appealing, user-friendly and includes all of the functionality we required. Content is easy for our non-technical staff to create and update, and easy for our users to navigate. It was a pleasure to work with a team that was efficient and responsive throughout the entire design and launch process.Susan Paju, Head of Reference, Acton Memorial Library
Visits have skyrocketed! Our Library's website design committee consisted of several people, including volunteers, who had a variety of skills. Jim patiently demonstrated and trained the group to have appropriate levels of hands-on or administrative authority. Jim managed everyone at their level. Throughout the website's design, each member of our committee wanted to create a superior website and continually sent Jim suggestions, ideas and revisions. He acted quickly on each of these, guided us, and understood our goal. We couldn't be happier with the result and continue to receive praise for the appeal and content of our website.Elizabeth Johnston, Director, Sherborn Library
Jim Woodman and his team at Clearpeak are a pleasure to work with. We have hired Clearpeak to work on multiple website development projects. Every time, they deliver great front-end designs as well as high-quality back-end coding.Steve Collins, President, Webb Communications, Inc.
The Content Management System work that Clearpeak has done on each site has also been excellent — making it easy to keep site content updated.
I would highly recommend Clearpeak to any organization looking for a highly-experienced interactive agency capable of delivering great work.
Our new website is so much faster and easier to work with. The time it takes to update a page has been cut in half and we have so many more editing options at our fingertips. We’ve had a great experience working with the Clearpeak team and they’ve responded immediately to any requests we’ve had.Carly (Doyle) Allen, Communications Manager, The Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS)
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