On 1 December 2009, the III All-Russian Contest of Library Websites announced its winners and posted its results on the web-portal LIBRARY.RU . Facilitated by the RF Ministry of Culture, the Russian Library Association and the Russian State Youth Library, the contest was held from June to November 2009 among 179 library websites and Internet projects, with eighty-seven municipal library networks and public libraries competing in the nomination “Best Website of a Municipal Library Network/Municipal Library.”

Tyumen municipal library network has worked on the development and maintaining its website since 2007. The website development team invested much time and effort in designing a user-friendly site for people of all ages, taking into consideration the library network’s mission and goals, trying to anticipate potential users’ needs and logic, and providing multiple options for users’ convenience every step of the way.

The website was launched in June 2008; since then it has been visited 107,372 times by 9,800 users of various ages, from “younger than twelve” to “over fifty,” living in various regions throughout and beyond Russia. The website’s geography keeps expanding: among its visitors are residents of Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Germany, France, Norway, the USA, Israel, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Mongolia, China, Bulgaria, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and other countries.

As of today, the website boasts eight pages in its Main Menu, with sixty sections and 10 subsections. It features materials on local projects such as “Our City,” “Ten Names of Tyumen,” “Inspiration” and “Our History,” providing Tyumen residents with resources about their city, its history and its present literary and art scene. One of the pages features the IDEA Project, its mission and goals and their practical realization by the local IDEA Center, including some of the IDEA alumni’s feedback on the training.

The website administration tries to provide information that would be relevant and useful for all Internet users, such as, for instance, the library’s electronic catalog, maintained and updated since 2006 and containing more than 100,000 entries including both printed matter and electronic editions. Interactive features “Reserve a Book” and “Extend a Book Loan” enable library members to reserve books for use in the library’s reading halls or extend their book loans online. Virtual reference services “Ask a Librarian” and “Legal Aid” give users a chance to get online legal advice and obtain information on a wide spectrum of topics. In 2010 Tyumen municipal library network will continue its efforts to keep the website as attractive and informative as possible, trying to combine modern design, convenient navigation, quality software and professional website maintenance.

The award ceremony for winners of the III All-Russian Contest of Library Websites will take place as part of the II All-Russian Forum of Public Libraries on 8 – 10 December 2009, in St. Petersburg.

Congratulations to our Tyumen partners on such an important achievement!