New Website For AVRL, new browser for you?

You may be aware that the Annapolis Valley Regional Library launched a newly designed website a couple of months ago.  The change was necessary to better serve patrons who would like to access the site using phones or other mobile devices.  In moving in this direction, we were unable to develop a site that would work on all of the older versions of browsers.  When the site went live, we were all excited to get some real feedback from our users.   Unfortunately we quickly realized that many of our users are still using some of these older browsers.   

 
Anyone still using Windows XP as an operating system and is also using Internet Explorer will get a page that looks like the picture below when they visit www.valleylibrary.ca

Not at all like the version we wanted everyone to see, which is like the image above.

The best solution is to upgrade to a more current browser.  XP is officially out of support and is no longer being updated automatically by Microsoft which means Internet Explorer 8 is the last version that will work on XP.  The good news is there are alternatives to Internet Explorer that are faster, less vulnerable and give you the ability to add functionality.  Our favorites are Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

 Google Chrome came out in 2008 and has become the most popular browser worldwide. Chrome is fast, updates automatically and has a store filled with addons that can add functionality like adblocking or a Facebook addon that lets you keep up with friends’ activity even when you aren’t on Facebook.  Chrome is also one of the most secure browsers, blocking known malware and phishing sites automatically. 

 Mozilla Firefox is an open source offshoot of Netscape Navigator and has been one of the most popular browsers for many years. Firefox is quick and has a familiar interface. It was one of the first browsers to embrace addons and has a library of thousands to choose from.

There are countless reasons to upgrade your old browser and start using something new and up-to-date. Trust us when we say that your experience on the Web will be infinitely better if you choose to do this.

Whatever you’re doing on the Web—reading email, shopping, banking, or anything else—a new browser will allow your experience to be safer, faster, and much more beautiful.