Little Silver Teen Honored for Revamp of Library Website

The Little Silver Public Library website recently took a giant leap forward thanks to RBR junior Ryan McVeety, who volunteered a month of his summer upgrading the site with acting library director Anita O'Brien.

On Monday, McVeety was commended for his selfless efforts and presented with a proclamation by Mayor Robert C. Neff, Jr. on behalf of the borough council.

"Our old website was something that was made by the county in the 90s, it was archaic," said O'Brien. "It was a very static, one-dimensional website and it needed updating."

McVeety, an award-winning computer programmer at RBR's Academy of Information Technology and member of this year's , made the site more accessible by incorporating the library's Facebook page into the site and creating a tool for O'Brien and other library personnel to update the site with information about new releases and library events, among other improvements.

"Ryan kept coming in and showing me the progress that he made and we tweaked it, I told him what I wanted and he would go back and do what I asked, and we now have a wonderful website," said O'Brien.

O'Brien said she was introduced to McVeety by his mother, Pat, who has also served the library as a volunteer working at the front desk. Pat McVeety told O'Brien about a recent award Ryan had won with a team from RBR at the Future Business Leaders of America's national competition in Orlando, Fl., and shortly after, Ryan met with O'Brien to begin work on the site.

Ryan continues to donate his time and effort to improve the website, which can be found at http://www.littlesilver.lib.nj.us

"I've always loved the library," said Ryan McVeety shortly after receiving the proclamation. "I love reading, so yeah, it felt like a good thing to do."