The Ohio State University

We’re happy to announce a significant update to the OSUL Content Management System. There are a few differences for the public pages, some improvements in the administration area, and some important changes in the underlying system that will allow us to better maintain the code that we’ve used to extend the basic SilverStripe functionality.

After several discussions with Subject Librarians and general users, we changed the way that the Carmen/Resource widgets expand and collapse: there is a plus/minus sign, a common convention in most operating systems. We also enabled the content providers to choose which widgets to begin expanded when the page loads.

We also fixed a situation where the wrong title was being used in the ‘lister’ pages. This was causing the pages to appear out of what would commonly be appreciated as order. For example, on the Collections page, Archives was under T. We hope that this won’t cause too much confusion.

These are some of the more noticeable changes, but if you come across something that is not quite what you think it should be, please let us know.

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Today we’re posting the first two iterations of the OSU Libraries’ new home page for the redesigned web site. These wire frames illustrate two possible layouts of the Libraries’ home page, showing the fundamental elements of each, as well as their relative placement on the page. There’s also brief descriptive text in each box, with a sentence or two on the content of each.

Typically, wire frames are completed before artwork is developed. That’s true in this case, too. Graphic design work on the home page will begin after we’ve had a chance to review and digest the input provided through the feedback tool.

We’re looking for reactions, comments and suggestions to what’s on the drawing board. After we’ve gotten initial responses, we’ll take a look at the wire frames and see how they might be reconfigured or altered to incorporate some of the best suggestions.

So let us know what you think.

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The LIPP team is continuing to work on the evolving home page for the Libraries new web site. Beth Black participated in two CIPS meetings in November, and brought back lots of good input that the team has been able to incorporate into the latest round of revisions.

The home page needs to present users with access to library tools and information, including:

-A search box
-Information on library services
-Features on exhibits, displays, lectures and special events
-Content to help visitors use the site and its resources

Jim Muir and Pam McClung on working on wire frames we’ll be sharing here to show the content that will be provided on the home page, as well as its approximate physical location. Two different iterations will be presented for reactions and suggestions. That input will be used to work toward another set of iterations.

A feature being considered for the home page is a “super footer.” The super footer incorporates a great deal more information at the bottom of the page than does a traditional footer. More about that later. We’ll be studying whether a super footer would be a useful tool for us to incorporate on the homepage on of our site.

Watch for news on when the first two iterations are posted to this blog…we want your comments!

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During winter quarter, we will be offering 3 CMS classes:

• Introduction to the CMS: covers how to use the CMS to create pages and a short portion on the navigational structure. Each session includes significant hands-on practice time. This class is REQUIRED in order to create pages using the CMS.
• Carmen Library Link and Subject Pages: covers the Carmen Library Link (CLL) editor and the connection from that system to the CMS for the creation of Subject pages using Carmen Library Link widgets. This session will also cover the changes to the CLL editor, so even those using it for a while are encouraged to attend.
• Open Lab: Come with your questions and/or work in SEL 390 with helpers standing by, it’s up to you. If you have a particular question, please share it on the registration form so we can be prepared to answer it. These require registration so we can be sure to have enough helpers.

Registration is required for ALL classes.

All sessions are held in Room 390 of the Science and Engineering Library. Please use our sign up form to register. Space is limited to 14 participants per session.

Here’s the training schedule for winter quarter:

• 1/5 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. - Carmen Lib Link + Subject Pages
• 1/12 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Intro to CMS
• 1/20 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. - Open Lab
• 1/28 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Intro to CMS
• 2/3 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Carmen Lib Link + Subject Pages
• 2/12 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Open Lab
• 2/17 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Intro to CMS
• 2/23 2:00 - 4:00 - Open Lab
• 3/4 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Intro to CMS
• 3/11 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Carmen Lib Link + Subject Pages
• 3/17 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Open Lab

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Winter Break is a great time to work on CMS pages. Several Subject Librarians have recently added good Subject pages to the new website. Here are a few of my favorite features of these pages:

• The Geomorphology page starts with a definition of the term.
• The Art Education page links to the Fine Arts collection and makes good use of the description field to explain why this collection is the one to visit for this subject.
• The Nutrition page makes good use of the profile.
• The Math History page includes catalog instruction information with targeted links to the catalog for examples in the Books by an Author and Books by a Subject widgets. This page also shows an experiment in progress with adding an RSS feed.

Do you have a good thing to share? Or a question about how to do you something on your subject page? Join Kathy Webb and Mary Scott for a brown bag session on subject web pages for the Libraries’ new web site. The session will be at the Thompson Library, Room 150B, on Wednesday, December 30 from 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. We’ll talk about how to do what, and share tips, problems and ideas. Bring your problems or questions and see what ideas others might have for addressing them.

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What about the homepage?

We have been saving the homepage for last, mostly because we wanted our organization to focus on the content of the website and not fixate on the home page. We like to use the analogy of “writing the book before you worry about the cover”.

But here we are, we’ve got whole sections going into production, we’ve got Carmen Library Link Widgets being published in Subject pages, time to get started. Over winter quarter we are going to offer an interactive design period, inviting all website visitors: Staff, Students, Patrons, Bystanders to offer their opinions on the designs that we have up.

We are going to post our working design concepts (we’re initially shooting for at least two) and provide visitors the ability to comment on them in a public forum. We hope that this will help us gather a good number of ideas about how our home page can be a great way to start using the OSUL website.

At several points during the design project, we will be taking the suggestions and incorporating them into the concepts and inviting more feedback. This will create an iterative loop, allowing us refine our homepage several times before we are ready to go live.

We will be posting the ‘Beta’ version up during the first week of March, 2010 looking for any minor tweaks and fixes. We will be switching to the finalized home page during Spring Break, 2010.

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When do I need to have my content migrated?

We have changed our goals for having our website content migrated. Here are the phases:

1. Currently - All pages on the old site and the new are on the url library.osu.edu regardless of which server they reside on. We are using a clever script to help the whole site appear seamless: it changes the url on the old website to be library.osu.edu.
2. Spring Break 2010 - We will be changing that clever script: the old website will show it’s “real” name: nextweb.lib.ohio-state.edu. No links will be broken, but the url will not be changed to library.osu.edu.
3. Summer Break 2010 - We will be archiving the public web pages (not Staff Stuff type items) so they will not be available any longer. In other words, we are taking down public pages June 2010. Exceptions - Specialized applications, mostly database driven, will not easily move to the CMS. We will work on those on a case-by-case basis. e.g. African Lit Map, Hebrew Lexicon

Why did we change these dates?

Several things have made it hard for Content Providers to be able to enter their content. Training, getting the Production System ready, and educating users about the new Navigation Architecture. In order to allow our Content Providers to be able to focus on presenting their information the best way, we’ve changed the timeline, effectively giving us another several months.

We appreciate your efforts!

Many of you have been working very hard to meet the original deadline, and for that we are extremely grateful. You have been the brave front runners for our project in an extremely busy time for our organization. We would like to congratulate you on a job well done and hope that you feel like this has overall been a good experience. Thank you.

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We’ve been busy and so have you.
Here’s an update, without further ado…

Where We Are

We have to-date trained 78 people in our Intro to CMS classes. This is a lot of folks, but we have many more to go: there were 127 people who had ftp access to the old website and we expect about 200 content providers. If you think that you might have content that needs to be moved and haven’t signed up, please go to our registration form and find a class that works for you!

We have some great content already up: the How To Find section is very extensive, there are several subject pages up, and the jobs site has been live for several months now.

There is a bunch of new content in draft mode too. Some content providers are putting the final touches on their information, and some are scheduling the publishing to correspond with other efforts. One of the great features about the system that we’ve deployed is that they get to choose when things are put up and taken down.

Where We’re Going

First and foremost, we’d like to let you know that we are still conducting lots of training sessions: Intro to CMS, Subject Pages & Carmen Library Link, and Open Labs. We ask that you sign up so that we can gage the resources that we need. We also are happy to conduct consultations with Content Providers, both singly and in groups. If you have questions, we’d love to sit down and see if we can come up with answers.

If you have already published your content, you can help us by helping your peers. Let them know how to get trained, who they can talk to, what the system can do. If you see pages that haven’t migrated yet, contact the expert or owner of the content and encourage them to be trained. Have no idea who it belongs to? Contact us and we’ll see if we can figure it out together.

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We have added another session of the new class designed for those who will be building Subject pages on Thursday, November 19 from 9:00 am - 11:00 am. This session will cover the Carmen Library Link (CLL) editor and the connection from that system to the CMS for the creation of Subject pages using Carmen Library Link widgets. This session will also cover the changes to the CLL editor, so even those using it for a while are encouraged to attend.

All sessions are held in Room 390 of the Science and Engineering Library. Please use our sign up form to register. Space is limited to 14 participants per session.

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In November and December we continue to offer the Intro to CMS class, which covers how to use the CMS to create pages and a short portion on the navigational structure. Each session includes significant hands-on practice time. You are welcome to attend the training more than once. If you have not yet attended a CMS training session, this is where to start.

We also continue to offer the Open Lab sessions. Come with your questions and/or work in SEL 390 with helpers standing by, it’s up to you. If you have a particular question, please share it on the registration form so we can be prepared to answer it. These require registration so we can be sure to have enough helpers.

A new session in November is designed for those who will be building Subject pages. This session will cover the Carmen Library Link (CLL) editor and the connection from that system to the CMS for the creation of Subject pages using Carmen Library Link widgets. This session will also cover the changes to the CLL editor, so even those using it for a while are encouraged to attend.

All sessions are held in Room 390 of the Science and Engineering Library. Please use our sign up form to register. Space is limited to 14 participants per session.

• 10/29 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Intro to CMS
• 11/5 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. - Open Lab
• 11/6 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Carmen Lib Link + Subject Pages
• 11/10 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. - Intro to CMS
• 11/18 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. - Open Lab
• 12/2 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Intro to CMS
• 12/10 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Open Lab
• 12/15 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Intro to CMS
• 12/22 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. - Open Lab

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