A growing list of library sites created using static web generators.

Models Of : Library Website

People: Various

About Library Websites

The library website is an essential piece of digital infrastructure for communication and connecting patrons to the services and resources of the library. Rather than using the typical CMS, a lot of folks build their complete library websites using static generators. Most of these are unique, idiosyncratic projects reflecting their local context and contributors, highlighting the flexible solutions possible with static web approaches.

Rather than list each individual project, this post gathers together links and information about some examples. Sites included in this list were described in Code4Lib listserve or Slack.

Alphabetical:

Boston College

A complete library website built using Hugo by Jesse Martinez, Benjamin Florin (Librarian), and Luke Gaudreau (Discovery Systems Librarian).

• Boston College Libraries
• bc-libraries-site-hugo repository

An earlier version was created using Pelican in 2014.

Mina Rees Library CUNY Graduate Center

Stephen Zweibel (Digital Scholarship Librarian) created a static home page in front of content mostly hosted on LibApps for CUNY Graduate Center:

• Mina Rees Library
• Mina-Rees-library-site repository

Pratt Institute Libraries

Digital Learning Librarian Nick Dease built a complete Jekyll-based site:

• Pratt Institute Libraries
• prattlib-site-jekyll repository

University of Idaho Library

A complete library website built using Jekyll by Evan Williamson (Digital Infrastructure Librarian), Devin Becker (Head, Data and Digital Services), and Olivia Wikle (Digital Initiatives Librarian), with contributions from a dozen other librarians and staff. Much of the content is generated from spreadsheets, which collaborators access on Google Sheets.

• University of Idaho Library
• main-web-redesign_draft repository
• Article: “Using static web technologies and git-based workflows to re-design and maintain a library website (quickly) with non-technical staff”

University of North Texas

William Hicks (Head, User Interfaces) reported that UNT uses Jekyll for main library sites, building and deploying via GitLab.

• UNT Libraries

Whitman College Penrose Library

Kun Lin (Systems and Applications Librarian) created a Hugo-based website using a GitHub Workflow to compile and host on Cloudflare CDN. They use Netlify CMS for easy content editing, and use Heroku for some dynamic features.

• Penrose Library
• PenroseLibrary-Web repository

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record contributor: Evan Peter Williamson (University of Idaho Library)
last update: 2022-05-25