The Oak Park Public Library is planning to launch a brand-new website Thursday morning, a project that’s been in the works for nine months, Virtual Services Manager Anne Slaughter said.

After eight years with an unchanged website, Slaughter said the library was due for a change.

“Eight years is forever on the web,” Slaughter said. The old platform didn’t allow us to take advantage of new technology in terms of interactive features.”

The new website was built on Drupal content management system, the same platform used to launch the library’s new teen website, opplteen.org. Slaughter said the new website was designed with patrons in mind, as much of the updates were based on research and statistics from library users.

“We learned about why people were coming to the website and what their priorities were,” Slaughter said. “We changed a lot of the written content on the website, and added a search option, too.”

The website will also have a new live chat option where users can ask library staff questions 24 hours a day, Slaughter said. But, the most exciting part of the new website for a majority of staff is a section of the site completely dedicated to Oak Park.

“A public library is most valuable when we’re providing services and information unique to the community,” Slaughter said. “We’re putting everything we can about Oak Park in that tab. It’s pretty small now, but we’re placing priority on growing that section in 2012.”

The website is slated to launch at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Slaughter said.

A beta version of the site is available for residents to preview at http://beta.oppl.org/.

bdoyle@tribune.com