Content management strategy for a college library web site

Information Technology and Libraries

Volumn 23, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 23-29

  Dahl, Mark ^a  

^a LEWIS AND CLARK COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 2442614192     PISSN: 07309295     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (21)

1. The URL of the Web site discussed in this article. Accessed Apr. 8, 2003, http://library.lclark.edu.
2. For good overviews of the functions of commercial content management systems and their implementation in the context of higher education, see Paula Browning and Mike Lowndes, "Content Management Systems: Who Needs Them?" Ariadne 30 (Dec. 2001). Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, www.ariadne.ad.uk/issue30/techwatch; see also Wayne Powel and Chris Gill, "Web Content Management Systems in Higher Education," Educause Quarterly 26, no. 2 (2003). Accessed Aug. 15, 2003, www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0325.pdf.
3. For good overviews of the functions of commercial content management systems and their implementation in the context of higher education, see Paula Browning and Mike Lowndes, "Content Management Systems: Who Needs Them?" Ariadne 30 (Dec. 2001). Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, www.ariadne.ad.uk/issue30/techwatch; see also Wayne Powel and Chris Gill, "Web Content Management Systems in Higher Education," Educause Quarterly 26, no. 2 (2003). Accessed Aug. 15, 2003, www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0325.pdf.
4. Lewis and Clark College utilizes a locally coded campuswide content management system for many of the pages on its Web site. Unfortunately, it does not provide the presentation flexibility desired by the library.
5. For a discussion of a commercial content management system implementation at an academic library, see Pixie Anne Mosley, "Recreating a Web of Service at TAMU with a Content Management System," Texas Library Journal 79, no. 1 (spring 2003): 16-19.
6. PHP is a server-side Web-scripting language. Accessed Apr. 8, 2003, www. php.net.
7. PostgreSQL is an open-source relational database management system. Accessed Apr. 3, 2003, www.postgresq1.org.
8. There were several reasons for using server-side includes instead of Dreamweaver templates to hold the code for the banner and sidebar: First, Dreamweaver did not display the interior page correctly in its internal editor, so having the code there for it might confuse those using the template. Second, it was decided to offer a text-only version of the sidebar and banner because some older browsers were not supportive of the CSS-2 standards that were being used in the sidebar and banner. Third, Dreamweaver does not offer a good system for updating templates across all users' computers. If a staff member made a change to a template on the Web site, that individual would have to remind everyone to download the latest version of the template to their local computer.
9. Code of the browser sniffer. Accessed Apr. 8, 2003, www.eit.ihk-edu. dk/instruct/php-sniffer.php?e=0,7,22#0.
10. Watzek Library's site is currently coded in HTML 4.0 transitional, but could be easily converted to XHTML using Dreamweaver. As an XML-compatible document format, XHTML opens up the possibility of making Web pages compatible with wireless devices and other nontraditional Web-browsing systems. XHTML 1.0: The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, 2d ed., World Wide Web Consortium. Accessed Apr. 9, 2003, www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1.
11. For a review of Macromedia Contribute, see Alyson Behr, "Updating Made Easy," InfoWorld 25, no. 4 (Jan. 24, 2003). Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, www.infoworld. com/article/03/01/24/04contribute_1.
12. For an article that broadly covers database-driven Web applications, see Steven Westman, "Building Database-Backed Web Applications: Processes and Issues," Information Technology and Libraries 21, no. 2 (June 2002). Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, www.lita.org/ital/2102_ westman.html; for a discussion of two different approaches to creating database-driven subject Web pages, see Linda Bills, Rachel J. Cheng, and Alan J. Nathanson, "Subject Web Page Management without HTML Coding: Two Approaches," Information Technology and Libraries 22, no. 1 (Mar. 2003): 4-11.
13. For an article that broadly covers database-driven Web applications, see Steven Westman, "Building Database-Backed Web Applications: Processes and Issues," Information Technology and Libraries 21, no. 2 (June 2002). Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, www.lita.org/ital/2102_ westman.html; for a discussion of two different approaches to creating database-driven subject Web pages, see Linda Bills, Rachel J. Cheng, and Alan J. Nathanson, "Subject Web Page Management without HTML Coding: Two Approaches," Information Technology and Libraries 22, no. 1 (Mar. 2003): 4-11.
14. "Scout Portal Toolkit," Internet Scout Project. Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, http://scout.wisc.edu/Projects/SPT; see also Edward Almasy, David Sleasman, and Rachel Bower, "Software for Building a Full-Featured Discipline-Based Web Portal," D-Lib Magazine 8, no. 11 (Nov. 2002). Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, www.ala.org/ala/lita/litapublications/ ital/2102westman.htm.
15. "Scout Portal Toolkit," Internet Scout Project. Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, http://scout.wisc.edu/Projects/SPT; see also Edward Almasy, David Sleasman, and Rachel Bower, "Software for Building a Full-Featured Discipline-Based Web Portal," D-Lib Magazine 8, no. 11 (Nov. 2002). Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, www.ala.org/ala/lita/litapublications/ ital/2102westman.htm.
16. Accessed Apr. 4, 2003, http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary.
17. Accessed Apr. 3, 2003, www. dublincore.org.
18. Each row in the pathfinder table has a field for the pathfinder name, the resource ID, the name of the category in which the resource is placed, the position of that category in the pathfinder, and the position of the resource within that category.
19. For example, sometimes the resources descriptions had hyperlinks in them. It was discovered that simply inserting the HTML needed to create the link in the resources editor would make the link appear.
20. At Watzek Library, the databases include traditional article indexes as well as other online reference sources subscribed to by the library. Web sites are basically everything else available on the Web.
21. Building the pathfinder display system so that URLs remained short and did not require special characters was found to be helpful. This facilitates remembering the URL and passing it between people on paper and electronically.