Karen Coyle has a great post on her site where she calls for help on creating “An easy, online, social library catalog.” Why another cataloging tool? Karen has recently returned from Kosovo where many of the library don’t have catalogs and certainly don’t have the resources to run many of the affordable solutions out there. Here’s Karen’s checklist:

1. A social networking site where the society members are libraries, not individuals.
2. The ability to capture copy cataloging from other libraries or create cataloging on the site itself.
3. Full Unicode support, both for the interface and for the data.
4. The ability to capture and create records using a MARC-compatible format.
5. The ability to export the library catalog records in MARC format.
6. A reports function that could print off the results of searches or even the library’s inventory, so it could be used off-line.
7. The creation of groups of “library friends,” that is other libraries whose data should be included in searches and displays. This will facilitate sharing and also will serve users in areas where resources are scarce and scattered.
8. A search and display interface that looks like a modern library catalog
9. It all has to be easy to use with no training required, and not require any technical support on the part of the library.

Read Karen’s entire post and if you think you can lend a helping hand, let her know.

I know I’m not programming in PHP anymore - but that doesn’t mean that some of you aren’t. Thanks Ray for pointing out these webinars for PHP programmers.

Webinar: Part one - Seven Steps To Better PHP
January 09, 2008 - Your computer via Webex

Webinar: Part two - Seven Steps To Better PHP Code
January 23, 2008 - Your computer via Webex

Learn more.

Not being able to attend IL this year, I missed Frank and Darlene’s Cool Tools presentation, but it looks like Cindy did a good write up with links included! Or you can view the slides online.

Via Web4Lib:

Primary Research Group is planning to publish a survey of academic library websites. This survey is restricted to college libraries, including 2-year, 4-year and university websites, and is open to the academic libraries of all countries. The survey should be taken by the library website webmaster or other individual knowledgeable about the day to day workings of the college website. Participants receive a free PDF copy of the estimated 100-page report. Your library would be listed as a participant but all data is presented in aggregate categories and not broken out by library. Data is broken out by type and size of institution for easier benchmarking. To take the 50-question survey, follow the link below: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=m1JNHTZoltnC0nQDEa3amg_3d_3d

Last night I was updating my wish list on Amazon and I know that the site didn’t look like it does this morning.

In the top right they invite us to see what’s new:

Looks prettly slick - guess I’ll need to poke around some and see if it’s more usable - since re-designs are all about improving usability in my book!

[update]If you don’t see the new design it’s because things are still in transition. From the FAQ:

Why do I see the new design on my home computer but not at work?

We’re still in our testing phase, and you may not see the new design all the time.

[/update]

Technorati Tags: amazon

As most of you know, I’m new to this area. I’ve driven past a library on my way to the grocery store that has a sign out front for a book sale. This morning, I wanted to find out more info about this event, but my county’s library website is beyond horrible. In today’s day and age, with free web design tools available all over, I’m shocked to see a site like this. The long and short of it is that there are no events listed, so I probably won’t be able to support my local library unless I go grocery shopping before the book sale and stop to read the sign out front.

It’s things like this that get me angry enough to want to help the library innovate - but if I take on one more thing right now I might burst!! Maybe after I finish working on the website for the Greater Philadelphia Law Library Association (GPLLA) - another site that’s sorely in need of some updating - but, nowhere near as bad as my local county library system!

[update] While I stand by my comments about poor design - part of the problem was a plug in I have on Firefox that disallows javascript from running without my permission - for this reason the site I saw at home did not have a menu system at all - which brings us to ask is this site accessible?

Anyway, thanks to the anonymous commenter for pointing this out for me. [/update]

I had lunch with Janie Hermann today and she told me about Weebly. Weebly claims to be the easiest way to create an publish a website - and I have to say it’s one of the easiest out there - if you don’t know any better What do I mean? Well, I know my HTML and my CSS, so I like to have control, but for those who have no (or minimal) web skills - this tool is for them!!

Weebly lets you drag and drop widgets/page pieces onto the screen, change the layout, change the template and publish you page - bing-bang-boom - you’re done!

On possible use for Weebly (that Janie mentioned - gotta give her the credit) is if you just need a website for a little while - for something small like a family reunion or a presentation - why not create a quick Weebly page (and it is quick) and use that?

The best part is that Weebly will host your site ad-free for free! Also, if you already have a domain name - or have your own domain name - Weebly will host it for free (you just buy the domain).

Sounds like a pretty handy tool and something to keep and eye on.

Technorati Tags: weebly, web host, web design

Last week, I gave an introductory presentation to content management systems. Today I’m sitting with RayAna trying to decide whether to use Drupal or Joomla for the Greater Philadelphia Law Library Association website. We installed them both and keep going back and forth. For those who attended the talk - or are just curious, I just found an interesting comparison between the two. Right now we’re using Joomla - but who knows if I get annoyed enough I might switch back to Drupal.

[update] We switched back to Drupal [/update]

Technorati Tags: content management systems, joomla, drupal

So I just spent the last three days learning about XQuery for work. Five years ago I took a 4 day course in PHP programming and I was the both the youngest in the session and the only female - the same is true five years later for the XQuery training! Where are all the girls?? What are you all up to?

Anyway, my brain is so full of school and home stuff that I’m not sure I got the hang of things - but XQuery seems awesome and I can’t wait until I have time to sit down and read through the books I have and start creating awesome apps for accessing our digital collections. Keep an eye out as I learn XQuery - I’ll be sure to share tidbits with you all.

I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ve talked about others who have said it - but this topic bears repeating - over and over until it’s stuck in everyone’s head!! The way we design web pages needs to change - it’s changing all around us and it’s time to learn from others and use those new rules on our library sites. Today I got to see a test version of a new site for a public library (sometimes public libraries get to do the coolest things!) and it was amazing! I made notes and shared them with work (who are considering a redesign this year). Last week I wrote about user-centered design (an awesome topic). Today, I’m writing about Ellyssa Kroski’s talk on the new information design.

The fact is (if you hadn’t figured it out) the user experience with the web is changing. Users are changing the way they consumer information, the technology is different and most importantly the user’s expectations have changed. Today’s web design should be simple, social and provide alternative navigation structures.

Simple

Ellyssa included a quote from The Paradox of Choice: “The fact that some choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that more choice is better … there is a cost to having an overload of choice.” And then showed us a picture of MS Word with all of the toolbars turned on!! That is bad choice!

New web apps are just showing the user what’s necessary, there’s a lower learning curve this way. This is also known as the “less is more” philosophy - we’ve all heard it - now we just have to apply it to our web redesigns. Lastly, and we all know this (but most don’t do anything about it) users are expecting a DIY (do it yourself) service model!!

Today’s websites (mostly web 2.0 sites) have clean simple designs. Sites need to be designed with a purpose, just for design’s sake (no need for flash on that library homepage just cause you took a flash class last year). Some formatting choices we’re seeing often are:

• centered pages
• round edges (provides a casual feel)
• san serif fonts
• lowercase fonts
• large fonts for important concepts
• simple persistent navigation
• strong colors
• bold logos
• subtle 3D (like the site I saw a demo of) using reflections and shadows
• original simple icons (like our intranet)
• zen like feeling by using white space effectively (provides a fresh look)

Social

Just like every other talk at this Library 2.0 themed conference, Ellyssa reminds us that what used to be personal and singular is now shared (pictures, videos, etc). Users are expecting to interact socially with information on the web. This means commenting, ratings, send to a friend, subscribe via RSS, save for later and the ability to see all of that for the other users of the site.

Alternative navigation

Ellyssa showed us some need options for navigation (things librarians would never go for because they’re too chaotic). Some sites are trying to use a visual representation of what’s important on the site. Steve Krug writes in Don’t Make Me Think (great book by the way) that we don’t read pages, we skim them for important items - things that catch our eye. An example of an alternative method of navigation is a tag cloud. Others I’ve seen have included web like graphics linking pages together. Neither should be used as the main navigation - but the option can be there for users who like that sort of thing - it’s an easy addition.

Conclusions

Pretty simple! You have to evolve, be nimble and be willing to abandon bad ideas!! Doesn’t sound to hard - does it?

[update] More from Ellyssa [/update]

Technorati Tags: cil2007, cil07

After his talk for the PALINET & Library Connect event yesterday, Jonathan Clark of Elsevier came over to me and said, “You were nodding a lot, does that mean you liked the talk?” It was (for me) the best talk of the day!!

Jonathan talked about user-centered design and how it has been used at Elsevier. It’s important to note that most of us can’t afford to do some of the things that Elsevier did - but that doesn’t mean we should be limited in following the principles outlined.

The presentation started with a story. Jonathan used to be a scientist, so he thinks he knows how scientists think - he’s got the inside track and he can design the perfect tools for them. His colleague is married to a scientist - and so she also thinks that she has the inside track. The two of them always get into arguments on what design is best for the user - but when the user is asked - it’s always different from what they thought. The fact of the matter is, that even if you’ve worked with the user, been in the user’s shoes, or are married to the user - you are not the user - and you don’t know what they want or how they think without asking them.

First and foremost, we have to be user-focused in our design of web applications. By starting with the user you can avoid what Jonathan calls opinion wars. Opinion wars are what was defined in the scenario above - everyone thinking they know what’s best for the user. Stop thinking for your user and ask your user - observe your user.

The second principle is that product development should deliver just what’s needed. I know this sounds somewhat slacker-ish - but the fact is, there is no reason wasting time and money on something fancy when the user just wants the simplest tool. This will hopefully help you avoid requirement wars - discussions where everyone thinks they know what features are going to be required to make the new system the best.

User-centered design has three steps:

1. Understand the user
2. Design for the user (possibly using personas)
3. Evaluate the user interface (not the user) - the users aren’t stupid it’s your interface

A tool of user-centered design is stories. Stories are short 1-2 sentence descriptions of the users’ wants. These stories usually look like this:

“As a ____________, I want to ____________, so that I can ______________”

This gives you a clear picture of your user and the goals he/she has.

The other method that Jonathan discussed was Agile development. We went over this a bit in my systems analysis class last term, but Jonathan’s definition was much simpler.

The Agile development methodology is iterative and time-boxed - meaning that there are specific iterations and each iteration has a goal assigned to it. You complete the goal in a set amount of time and at the end you have a working product for that goal (not a wire-frame or a screenshot). With Agile programming you need a dedicated team and you need to be customer-focused. Lastly, you have to intensively test the product - with the user!!

This means you have to show your software to the users - and frequently, don’t worry so much about it not being perfect or looking just right, the goal is to see if the product does what the user wants/needs. This testing with and showing to the user will lead to constant refinement and a better product!

In short, when the product revolves around the user, you get a better product. You also (theoretically) get teams that have a common focus - which leads to better collaboration by all.

Jonathan made me want to go out and pick up a few books on the topic!! A similar presentation can be found here if you’re interested in seeing the slides.

I just read this funny dialog between a board officer and a web developer.

US/Canada Border Officer: "Are you coming for business or pleasure sir?"
Me: "Business"
Officer: "What is the nature of your stay?"
Me: "I'm a web developer and I'm meeting with a client in Oregon to discuss a project."
Border Officer: "What's the name of the client?"
Me: "pMachine."
Officer: "Are you bringing any websites with you?"
Me: Blank stare
Officer: "Do you have any websites in the car, sir?"

It’s funny and a little sad. You can read the entire dialog at the Digital Web Magazine site.

This year we’re going to be redesigning our library website. I’ve read tons of articles and attended sessions on different methods, but I’d love to hear from you. What was your most successful redesign project? What do you recommend doing? Not doing? How big was your team?

I thought I’d try and develop a survey using SurveyMonkey because I’ll actually be showing this tool to area librarians next month - and I’ve never used it before. So, if you could fill out my survey and send it on to your librarian friends that would be helpful.

I will share the results here on my blog when I’ve closed the survey.

Thanks in advance!!

[update] Keep those responses coming - I’d love to see more special librarians give me some ideas & answers hint hint[/update]

[update2] Survey Closed - keep an eye out for results[/update2]

Microsoft FrontPage hangs up it’s hat!

What happened to FrontPage?

After nine years of being an award-winning Web authoring tool, FrontPage will be discontinued in late 2006. We will continue to serve the diverse needs of our existing FrontPage customers with the introduction of two brand-new application building and Web authoring tools using the latest technologies: Office SharePoint Designer 2007 for the enterprise information workers and Expression Web for the professional Web designer.

Want more mail? I just learned about the free Website Magazine from LibraryPlanet. Can’t wait for it to arrive!

I am considering using Feed2JS on our intranet (after listening to Meredith & Paul at Internet Librarian) - I’m still going to give it a whirl, but I’ll be more cautious before I use it on any of our sites outside of the firewall after reading this warning from RSS4Lib.

If you run your own copy of Feed2JS on your own server (rather than using Feed2JS’s public version), unscrupulous folks can borrow your script — and your bandwidth — to repurpose other RSS feeds from other sites without your knowledge or permission.

There is hope though.

Feed2JS.org offers directions for restricting Feed2JS to the feeds you want to be reused.

Meredith Farkas & Paul Pival gave a fun presentation on RSS (something I use tons of) & JS (something I don’t use much of).

Using JS and RSS Paul & Meredith showed us how to create a dynamic subject page for your library site. The problem with traditional subject pages is that they aren’t updated often, they’re not easy to update (HTML required), and since no field is static a static page isn’t the right solution. Why not use some of the tools mentioned to create a dynamic page that pulls news, journal updates, and new books from RSS feeds? You can even mix together RSS feeds into one consolidated feed using RSS Mix (doesn’t show the source), KickRSS (registration required), or FeedBlendr (shows the source & no registration).

Another suggestion from Meredith - if you don’t have access to edit your library’s website easily, why not create a blog and put the updates there - then use JS to pull in the RSS feed to your subject guide - that means the webmaster only has to update the page once (to add the JS code) and then you can make updates whenever you want. This works great for people with locked down servers and websites.

One last tool lets you add an RSS feed reader widget on your site. Grazr imports an OPML and lets you put the reader right on your website. Meredith used my IL2006 OPML as an example!

Up until now I have been using PHP to parse RSS feeds for our intranet - I’m going in to work on Monday to switch to JS. Meredith & Paul have provided a nice long list of tools here on their wiki.

Technorati Tags: il2006, il06

There is an interesting post on the About Web Design site.

Since Internet Explorer is one of the most popular Web browsers out there right now, many designers are designing their Web pages for it. Of course, there is also the desire to design your Web pages for the standards compliant browsers like Firefox, Safari, and Opera, but chances are you are going about your design methodology backwards to how it can be most efficiently done. In a nutshell - leave IE until last.

I’ll admit I have sort of lost my design roots - I am much more about database development now - but we’re going to be redesigning our library site sometime soon and I’m glad I read this article.

I went to the library to return The Visible Librarian and I was going to check out The Invisible Web - but after picking it up off of the shelf I saw Weaving the Web and just had to change my mind.

Weaving the Web is written by Tim Bernes-Lee the sub-title reads “The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor”.

I was a little worried about reading a book written by an engineer - I thought it would be more technical than I wanted - but this book is great! I can’t seem to put it down. It’s a little hard to read when he talks about programs and machines that were before my time - but other than that - I highly recommend this book - and I’m only 1/2 way through.

The part I like the best so far? That a librarian is responsible for the web making it’s way out of Berners-Lee’s workplace (CERN) - Louise Addis of Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC).

She saw [the web] as a godsend for their rather sophisticated but mainframe-bound library system, and a way to make SLAC’s substantial internal catalogue of online documents available to physicists worldwide. Louise persuaded a colleague who developed open tools for her to write the appropriate program, and under Louise’s encouragement SLAC started the first Web server outside of CERN.

(Quote from Pg 45-46.)

How cool is that?? If you’re interested in the history of the web get out there and find a copy of this book.

There is a thread on the Web4lib mailing list with sources for free stock photos. I’ve heard of a few of the sources - but this one is cool - Yotophoto let’s you find free photos - by color!! You can also search the usual way - but it’s the by color search that seemed like fun to me.

I went to the library with my husband the other day and was just browsing around (not easy - but that’s another discussion) and found The Visible Librarian. I’m almost finished reading and it was well worth borrowing! Judith Siess agrees with what I’ve been saying all along (although it looks like she said it first).

The primary selling point of a website is its content. We librarians are the experts at content acquisition, classification, and access. It is highly unlikely that the information technology (IT) department (the computer people) will consider content and classification their highest priorities. Librarians must be involved to keep the focus on these two concepts, which are ultimately more responsible for the success of a website than programming and graphics … Librarians can and should be involved as planners, marketers, leaders (visioneers), risk takers, and partners with customers and vendors.

That quote is from page 73-74.

That is so true! The fact that librarians aren’t included in all programming projects is why we have so many problems with the products provided by our vendors and contractors.

Sometimes I find myself taking a screenshot and cropping the image just to find out how much space I have to work with - this is just silly! Download Squad has just pointed me to a new resource - Pixel Ruler.

Know the exact size and position of any element with this screen ruler. Pixel Ruler features horizontal and vertical orientation, dynamic mouse measurement tracking in pixels, cool design.

It’s not perfect - but it is something I’m going to keep installed - you never know when it will come in handy.

For Firefox users there is also the MeasureIt extension - just FYI.

I don’t know why this sounds familiar - but I just read about Google Webmaster Central (possibly for the second time) on Download Squad.

From here you can use any of the following tools:

• Site status wizard
  Find out whether your site is currently being indexed by Google.
• Google’s blog for webmasters
  The latest news and info on how Google crawls and indexes websites.
• Webmaster tools (including Sitemaps)
  Statistics, diagnostics and management of Google’s crawling and indexing of your website, including Sitemap submission and reporting.
• Google’s discussion group for webmasters
  Talk with your fellow webmasters and share your feedback with us.
• Submit your content to Google
  Learn about submitting content for Google properties such as Google Base and Google Book Search.
• Webmaster help center
  See answers to frequently asked questions about crawling, indexing, ranking and other webmaster issues.

Seems pretty handy.

That’s right I can admit I don’t know everything there is to know about HTML.

That doesn’t stop me from being a little ashamed to admit that I just read about 5 HTML elements I hadn’t used (or heard of) before on the SEOmoz Blog.

My favorites? <acronym> & <optgroup> - I have to go find a use for those right now!!

Google now has a competing site for SourceForge - at least that’s what it sounds like to me. The new site is called Google Code - Project Hosting.

The new service from Google is a hosting environment called Project Hosting, that allows developers to upload and store any open-source project code they have in their arsenal. It also allows those interested, to search and download open source codes in Python, C++, Java, Audio, XML, CSharp, Graphics, and many other formats.

Learned about from Download Squad.