Report on the Assessment of the Federal Libraries Section Website and Recommendations for an Improved Web Presence and Communications Strategy

Abstract

In 2011, leadership of the Federal Libraries Section (FLS) of the Medical Library Association (MLA) felt that the Section’s website was out of date and could be improved. The FLS proposed a project, in which a member of MLA’s 2012-2013 Rising Stars cohort (a leadership development program offered by MLA) would conduct an evaluative study of the current FLS website (http://fls.mlanet.org/). The study would include interviewing FLS members to determine features members needed and desired on the Section’s website. The goal of the study was to use the results to suggest recommended changes to the website, and to thereby improve the Section’s communication with its members and to promote the Section as a community of like-minded professionals with a common purpose.

The project proposal was accepted, and Liz Fine Weinfurter, a member of the 2012-2013 Rising Stars cohort and a liaison librarian at the University of Minnesota, was tasked with completing the project. Diane Cooper, incoming Chair of the FLS and an Informationist at the NIH Library, served as Liz’s mentor for the project. MaShana Davis, Web Content Manager at the NIH Library, and Ed Poletti, FLS Webmaster and Chief of Learning Resources at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, also served as advisors on the project. The project began in June 2012, and concluded with a report to the FLS leadership and membership in May 2013.