Who are your library website users?

When starting a website redesign, we start right away thinking about who the site is for. We see websites are for real people, people you know or could imagine, and we group people into audiences before making any decisions on content, functionality or design. When we create a new website for a public library, we bring understanding from our deep work with other libraries, but every public library is different and has its own specialized audiences. Defining audiences is one part of our content strategy to make a site that really connects with a community.

Understanding audiences can help a public library predict the needs and preferences of their website users, which in turn can help the library create a more website built for those needs and preferences. By identifying specific groups of users, such as teens, seniors, or job seekers, a library can create or tailor the information and resources on their website to better meet the needs of these groups.

There are many different ways that a public library can define its website audiences. Some common methods include:

Demographic characteristics: Libraries can define their audiences based on demographic information such as age, gender, income level, education level, and geographic location or distance from the nearest library.

Interests and needs: Libraries can also define their audiences based on the interests and needs of users. For example, a library might have separate audiences for students, educators, researchers, and recreational readers.

Behavior: Libraries can define their audiences based on how users interact with the website, such as which pages they visit most frequently or how long they spend on the site, or.

Goals: Libraries can define their audiences based on the specific goals that users have when visiting the website, such as finding a specific book, accessing research materials, or getting help with a school assignment.

Feedback: Libraries can gather feedback from users to better understand their needs and preferences. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, or other research methods.

It’s important to note that a library’s website audiences may overlap and that one user may belong to multiple audience groups. For example, a student who is also a recreational reader may have different goals and needs when using the library’s website than a researcher who is primarily interested in accessing scholarly articles.

The work defining audiences is an investment that goes beyond the content strategy stage. Audiences can also inform a library’s marketing and outreach efforts, as they can better target messaging and communications to specific groups of users. It can also help decisions in staff resources in future content creation, be it for the website, social media or even printed resources.

Overall, understanding the audiences for a library’s website can help the library better serve its community and fulfill its mission.