The Chicago Public Library’s website is both helpful and interesting. The homepage is surprisingly easy to read considering how much information it has. At the top right hand corner, there is a search bar that allows one to access both the entire site and the library catalog. Elsewhere on the page are several of the library’s “features” including: new book acquisitions, recommended reading, upcoming events, and information about Wi-Fi, as well as special access points for selected groups of users including: new adult readers, materials for kids, the ESL community, and special collections on topics of interest.

The catalog is equally useful. I decided to search for “Gone With The Wind” as an item that would be available in multiple formats. When the results page returned, there were four icons representing the different formats that title was in: “books,” “downloadable media,” “movies,” and “music.” Clicking on any of these icons returned the results in that category. Additionally, on the right hand side of the page was a tool bar that acted as a mock faceted classification access device. This bar divided the results up by location, format, languages, audience, subjec -topic, subject-place, subject-time period, fiction, and non-fiction. Each one of these facets showed the variety of sub-classifications and the number of materials available in each.

One of the coolest features of the Chicago Public Library’s site is the downloadable media section. This section allows patrons to “check out” e-books, audio books, and music to download to their computer. There are a limited number of copies available of each of these digital items, and each item is available to the user for a 21 day period. After the end of the loan period, the file becomes unavailable.

Chicago is a diverse metropolitan area, and the Chicago Public Library’s website has made an attempt to be accessible to a large portion of their patrons. The font on the site can be enlarged for those with visual impairments, the site is in English, Spanish, and Polish, and a user can search for titles in a variety of other languages; for example “Gone With The Wind” was available in Polish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, French, German, Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian.

All in all, I think that the website is successful in providing access to a variety of the Chicago Public Library’s users.