Web Committee Meeting Minutes 10.27.09
Present: Dan B (minutes), Dan P. Linda, Tim (chair), Paula, David,
Sarah S., Sarah H. {a full house, I believe}
Next Meeting: 11.19.09, 2-3:30, Mugar Conference Room
Action Items:
- Danny will try to create a work-around for the java
problem in OneFile, wherein the user is taken to a quick search screen
where the user will have to click search a second time, unless David's
suggestion of using a search widget from Gale resolves the issue.
- Linda will ask Alex and Tim will ask Beth if they would like to
participate in the site redesign subgroup.
- The site redesign subgroup will create a single page, closer to the
WordPress templates
currently in favor at BU and reasonably compliant with "branding", but
maintaining the basic layout from our current top page, and report back
to the web committee.
- Tim will clear the use of student photos on our website and bring up MetaLib again with Bob.
- Sarah S. will compile basic facts about WorldCat's meta-search
feature and email to the group. That and Dan B.'s left-over agenda
item (additional links from top-page) should be on the next agenda.
Announcements:
a) Dan P. is having trouble finding a fix for the following Academic
Onefile java problem. It occurs in a user's first browser session;
when changing a tab or setting a limit an error occurs. Danny will try
to create a work-around wherein the user is taken to a quick search
screen where the user will have to click search a second time, unless
David's suggestion of using a search widget from Gale resolves the
issue.
b) Tim announced the faculty survey that the Assessment Group is
working on.
c) Tim announced that on Rhoda's suggestion he has implemented code for
the ejournals database that retains the search and the search term from
the top page, on the results page.
d) Tim previewed an interface to the two months of ezproxy logs that
Scott has provided so far. The results were impressive to the
committee and include info such as affiliation, on and off campus
numbers, etc. Tim explained it really only works with domains at this
point. He also believes that if a user enters another database through
sfx, then that is captured by the log.
Agenda minutes:
1) Pam Sarian from New Media has been busy; she probably won't be able
to come talk with us about a site redesign until next semester. We
decided to move ahead with what we can do in-house, as far as a site
redesign goes. There was discussion about the decision making process,
as a result of which we decided that the initial step of redesigning is
best left to a subgroup (aptly named the site redesign working group).
Sarah S. suggested that non-committee members be included in the
group. Suggestions for non-committee members included Alexandra
Solodkaya from PERL and Beth Restrick of African Studies. Linda will
ask Alex and Tim will ask Beth if they would like to participate.
Volunteers from the committee were Dan Piekarski and Sarah Hunter. The
group will create a single page, closer to the WordPress templates
currently in favor at BU and reasonably compliant with "branding", but
maintaining the basic layout from our current top page, and report back
to the web committee.
2) Paula believes the students who took pictures in Mugar are available
to take pictures in other libraries. Those who wish to have them do so
should speak with Mary McGowan. Waivers have been signed by the
students in the pictures and are on file with Mary M, but using student
photos on our website may still be an item of concern, so Tim will
clear their use with Bob.
Web Committee, Tuesday, 9/15/09
Present: Dan Benedetti, David Fristrom, Sarah
Hunter, Tim Lewontin (chair), Dan Piekarski, Linda Plunket, Sarah
Struble (minutes)
Next meeting: TBD by email
Tasks
- SRS will ask SW about her templates for site cleanup
- DF and SH will draft an email asking staff to volunteer pages for new classes tab on Mugar subject guides page
- DF will work with DB to make classes tab
- continue work on site cleanup
- TL will ask Mary McGowan about students with photography skilz for site redesign images
- DP will work on design features that take length of branch names into account
Follow up & Announcements
SH reports that the 1st floor Mugar/IT space's official branded designation (pay attention to the spacing) is: BU Common @ Mugar
TL asked that discussion of New Media visit will be posponed until a meeting where PC can attend
Susan will come demo Google calendars at a future meeting
Topics
Site Cleanup
Continues apace. We all had a great time playing "what my instance of dreamweaver does that yours doesn't"
TL reminded us all to use Google link checker to determine if pages slated for deletion were still linked to from our site
Subject Guides
Last meeting's discussion ended without any firm decisions, so we revisited the topic. There seem to be 2 main issues, Where do the class guides reside on our site, and how/where do we provide links to those guides.
It was agreed that all class guides should reside in /instruction/ (or the branch equivalent of that directory), and be created on the instruction.dwt template (or branch equivalent).
It was agreed that we would add a classes tab to the current guides page, http://www.bu.edu/library/guides/index.html , similar to the tab at Pardee, http://www.bu.edu/library/management/guides/index.html .
It was agreed that class guides could stay in /instruction/ even
when not actively linked from the classes tab on the guides page, as
some of these classes recurr, (for instance, Puppetry for Physicist
might be offered every spring, but be taken down in the fall).
It was agreed that SH and DF will take the lead on maintaining and initially populating the contents under that tab, but that DB will also serve as a backup for them, since the guides page is his. SH and DF will draft an email to be shared first with the web committee and then sent to contribute-L, asking staff who teach classes and create class pages to contribute a list of courses for inclusion for this semester. Web Comm members were encouraged to lead by example.
DF suggested that we model the tab on UMass Boston's classes page (http://healeylibrary.wikispaces.com/Fall09), with the use of a semester date to keep contents current.
We agreed to use a course #/section/course name/prof standard naming system [eg: HS210 A1 Introduction to Critical Inquiry (Struble/O'Keefe) ] to list the courses for which there are guides, as this is the organization that will make the most sense to students.
We agreed that see references to general subject guides that are used when giving bibliographic instruction to specific courses would also be employed.
We will send out a separate email to page authors after the dust has settled on setting up the classes tab, asking that pages in /instruction/ which are more properly subject guides be moved over. DB will take the lead on that.
Site Redesign
DP showed us some design elements (new branch page template possibilities, as well as CSS elements) he's worked on that are similar what we might get from New Media, or with BU branding, but that take our site's intent and use into account:
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/guides/energytemplate.html
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/guides/bookstemplate.html
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/guides/guidestemplate.html
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/guides/template2.html
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/guides/template3.html
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/guides/template4.html
There was a general consensus that we were more concerned with getting the BU look and feel that branding allows than with slavishly following all the details of the 73 page branding decree. DB had received official images from the branding group before, but was not impressed. There are sample images and some notes he made at:
http://www.bu.edu/library/workfiles/db/offimages.html - just for reference....
SS stressed that any new CSS elements that we expected to deploy on guides pages or other pages with contribute-using authors should be available and usable from contribute. This may require some staff training.
We discussed what would need to be changed to implement a redesign: new branch and top pages, new templates (I'm not sure we determined if there needed to be both wide and standard templates to replace the current wide and standard ones?), updated CSS files, photos to use on top pages and elsewhere
We also discussed concerns we wanted to keep in mind in redesigning the site: extent of branding compliance, usability information and past decisions that led to our current design re: what links appear on the pages, what they are called, where on the page they are, single-screen footprint for top pages.
DP is going to do more work on making the headers "Brandish" without eating up too much space, and including the full names of the branch libraries as well as the BU Libraries "brand"
TL is going to followup with Mary McGowan on student workers with photography skills for the images we need.
Web Committee, Thursday, 9/3/09
Present: Dan Benedetti, Paula Carey, David Fristrom, Sarah
Hunter, Tim Lewontin (chair), Danny Piekarski, Linda Plunket (minutes), Sarah
Struble
Next meeting: Tuesday, 9/15, 2pm, location TBD
The primary topic of the 9/15 meeting will be the re-design/branding of the website.
Tasks
- TL will talk to Bob about updating the Director's Interview web page.
- TL will look into the possibility of installing PHP on the Library's server at a later time.
- SS will talk to Susan about creating a interim ask page with links to L/T/M and Mugar.
- TL will send a message to refnews about class guides (see notes below).
- Most members have been assigned old templates to deal with (see notes below for assignments & tasks).
Follow up & Announcements
1.SH reported that the News Committee is willing and able to link to videos in News items. She also reported that the Welcome to BU Libraries message is now up in News.
A discussion ensued about the Director's Interview webpage which is linked from the About menu. It was decided that it should be updated or taken down. We considered the possibility of adding links to this page for important news items that might have value beyond the life of a typical news item. Any updated page should not include a date. Tim will talk to Bob about the future of this page.
2. Tim reported that Susan has agreed to demo Google Calendar at an upcoming meeting.
3. Tim contacted NIS about the possibility of our hosting PHP on the Library's server. NIS asked if we wanted PHP on the whole site or just specific directories. PHP on the Library's site would allow us to add dynamic links on any of the site's pages. For example, we could move to dynamic linking in the Research Guides. However, Contribute users would probably not be able to create these links. This issue raises difficulties. TL will look into this at a later time.
4. SFX links from PubMed are working. The MED Library has asked Tim to add a link to their ask-a-librarian service. Sarah S. mentioned that there are a number of shared services (EZproxy help, Catalog, WCL, etc.) that should have links to L/T/M's ask pages as well as to Mugar's ask page. Perhaps a succinct interim ask page should be developed. Sarah S. reported that she has spoken to Susan about this and Susan is open to creating a page. Sarah will follow up with Susan.
5. ASL top page is done and ASL staff is pleased.
Topics
Guides Pages and Instruction (DB)
An issue came up about linking to a file in Instruction. This is not something we've encouraged because these files are deliberately hidden. With a few exceptions, such as Ruth's Finding Images, these files tend to be ephemeral and are often not kept up-to-date. The purpose of the Instruction directory is to give space to instructors who want to post ad hoc files for their classes. Dan B. solved this particular issue by applying the research template to the file in question and moving it to /library/guides/. But this case raises an issue--what do we want to do about the content in the Instruction directory that would be helpful to users if it were more accessible. One solution might be to group all class guides together under a tab. Pardee has added a Class Guides tab to their Business Guides & Tutorial page. This seems appropriate for the branches, but perhaps not for Mugar, at this time. Mugar serves a huge number of faculty, students, and courses. Tom is interested in having staff create many more guides for classes. But it isn't the role of the Web Committee to assign tasks to bibliographers. So, we decided that branch libraries should feel free to copy Pardee's idea of adding a tab for Class Guides, while Mugar bibliographers should feel free to ask WC members for help in transferring appropriate files from Instruction to Research Guides. Tim will send out a message to refnews about this issue.
Danny P. mentioned that Google Analytics is having trouble with some templates. NIS stats and GA stats are not lining up for all pages. Danny guesses that some browsers are having difficulty counting hits.
Site Cleanup (LP)
The site needs cleaning up. We can start by getting rid of templates with the old design. But before we can delete them we need to check each file attached to these templates. We assigned a WC member (or Susan) to each of the 27 templates with the old design. We assigned the person most familiar to the template or most interested in files attached to the particular template.
The task:
- figure out what files are attached to the template in question (call LP if you want a walk through)
- contact the page creator or the person most interested in the content
- decide whether to apply a new template or to delete the file, and do so
- report back to WC on progress at next meeting
The assignments:
about-wide.dwt - SW
ask-wide.dwt - SW
branch-african-standard.dwt - SH
branch-african-wide.dwt - SH
branch-mgmt-standard.dwt - DP
branch-mgmt-wide.dwt -DP
branch-mugar-wide.dwt - DB
branch-music-standard.dwt - SH
branch-sel-wide-bi.dwt - DF
branch-sel-wide.dwt - DF
eresources-standard.dwt - TL
generic-libraries-wide.dwt - SS
generic-libraries.dwt - SS
illform.dwt - SW
instruction-wide.dwt -SW
irnew.dwt - SW
irpopupmenu.dwt - SW
ir.dwt - SW
mugar-branches.dwt - LP
news-standard.dwt -SH
news-wide.dwt - SH
research-guide-standard.dwt - DB
research-guides-wide.dwt - DB
research-standard.dwt - LP
research-wide.dwt - TL
services-standard.dwt - SW
services-wide.dwt - SW
Next steps:
Once we've cleaned these out, we can move on to streamlining workfiles, the intranet, etc. Danny suggested that with the next template design we should get rid of server side includes.
Branding conversation - New Media (TL)
Tim reported that he spoke with Pam Sarian from New Media and that she seemed enthusiastic about working with us, but is very busy. She suggested meeting with us sometime this fall. Are we asking for one template or many templates, and what is needed on those templates? Are we only asking for a top page from which we would then create a template? If we're only asking them for a header, a footer, and CSS, can we do this ourselves? What would we be asking for that we couldn't do ourselves? These questions should be resolved at least to some extent before meeting with New Media. The assumption at this point is that we'll continue to work with Dreamweaver and Contribute for the time being. We don't know if New Media uses BU Photography or if they have their own photographers. Tim will follow up with New Media once we have resolved what we might want New Media to do for us.
Branding conversation - Danny's Pages (DP)
We ran out of time so we didn't look at the pages Danny created. This will be at the head of the agenda for the next meeting.
_______________________________________
Web Committee Minutes 8/05/09
Present: Tim Lewontin (chair), Sarah Struble, Dan Piekarski , Linda Plunket, Paula Carey, David Fristrom, Sarah Hunter (minutes)
Next Meeting: Sept. 3, 2009, 2-3:30, location TBD
Tasks:
Sarah H. will speak with the News Committee to see if there is a news story that can have a link to the orientation video
Linda will attempt to email orientation video to see if it is in a format we can access
Tim will extend invitation to Susan to make a presentation on Google calendar.
Dan P. will create a design with more updated look and partial branding
Tim will also contact Pam Sarian at New Media to see if they can give us a presentation and will alert Bob Hudson to this.
Sarah H. will change VC redirect page to News story text
Announcements:
Tim has contacted PubMed about NLM forms and hasn't heard back.
Tim has removed catalog link from SFX menu. This can be restored if needed
Tim has contacted NIS to see if there is any way that PHP can be hosted on our server
Discussion:
Branch libraries:
- ASL redesign nearly finished. Sarah H. is waiting on go ahead from Beth Restrick. Site expected to go up in the next week
- Astronomy being tweaked but will not be switched to the full design as there is not enough content
- Susan has been contacted about Beebe. Global update is scheduled for Aug. 17th. Dan B. and Linda are going to work just in the source code and find links with sort/find to see how many there are. If there are not too many, owners of pages can work on these individually. If there are many links, an email will be sent out.
Video formats
Dan B. has been working with Diane D'Almeida to put videos on the site. There were problems with format (Mac to PC conversion). This brings up the issue of standards for formats. If the University does not have standard video formats, we should set them for library sites. Tom Casserly would also like to put up the orientation video somewhere on the site. Sarah H. will speak with the News Committee to see if there is a news story that can have a link to the video (possibly Welcome message). Linda will also attempt to email video to see if it is in a format we can access.
Google calendar
Using google calendar, Susan Wishinsky has a program that lets one see what any library's hours are on any day. It will require someone from each branch library to input information. These various inputs will result in one output. Site will need to be easily maintainable and responsible staff member needs to stay on top of their own information. Tim will extend invitation to Susan to make a presentation.
Branding and Wordpress
Consensus is we are not ready for Wordpress (it is not ready for us), the earliest date being at least next summer. Usability studies show that students want the library to have the look and feel of Boston University. We can apply some branding to accomplish this. Top branding will take up too much real estate on the page but we can implement colors and fonts and a small logo at the bottom of the page. Dan P. suggested creating a few new templates and looking at guides. New designs don't need to happen all at once, they can be rolled out slowly. Specific suggestion for guides are images or pictures with name and contact info. Dan P. cited Fit/Rec as an example of a site that is using some branding as well as an updated look with rounded boxes, bright pictures and a crisp banner. He can create a few designs for us to look at. Tim L. will also contact Pam Sarian at New Media to see if they can give us a presentation and will alert Bob Hudson to this. New Media may be too expensive and busy, however, we will be looking only for top pages and templates and most work will be done by staff. We also need to point out the things which we like about the current design.
Other discussions:
- Aquisition of federated search still unknown.
- SH will change VC redirect page to News story text.
- Boston Library Consortium Worldcat is still waiting for three things before it can go live: Authentication piece, circulation coding that OCLC is designing and a piece from UIS to get into Millennium. SS is trying to get this operable by early Sept. for the start of classes. She also mentioned there will be four pickup locations: Med, Mugar, Law and Theology.
Web Committee Minutes 7/22/09
Present: Dan B (minutes), Dan P, Sarah H, Sarah S,
Tim, Paula, David, Ron Yeany
Next Meeting: 08.05.09, 2-3:30, location TBD
Decisions/Tasks & Announcements: none
Discussion:
Ron Yeany joined us for the entirety of the meeting to discuss
BU's WordPress CMS (WP) installation.
He started by announcing that IT is not ready to help transition the
library site into WP. There are currently two levels of write access:
"web administrators" and "web editors". Web admins can manage users
(permissions for write access to our site), and also set some other
site options like nav bar items. Web editors are like our
Contributors - they can modify only content. Ron guesses that we would
need more than these two levels to administer a site this large.
New Media (NM) has designed four very
boring themes, which are available off the shelf. See ERC for the gray theme, or Bike Safety for the red theme. NM will create
custom themes, but for a charge. See CAS for a
custom theme. IT has also begun to create custom
themes (actually only one so far, and they will be closely based on
existing themes), but that is on a charge basis as
well, although this charge is far less, perhaps as little as one tenth
the NM charge.
Timeline for our transition - if we want to do a custom design, Ron
suggests we start working with NM now, even though they and IT have
quite a backlog. The contact person at NM would be Pam Sarian
(psarian@bu.edu, 358-1217). But it might also be okay to wait some
time, because their workload is bound to diminish. We are the largest
site on bu.edu.
Some current basic problems about BU's WP installation:
- We could not edit the php code itself within WP: at that point we
would be editing the theme.
- Some basic WP plugins have not been able to be successfully
implemented in our local WP, but others are being developed.
- Our local WP does not make use of categories, topics, or tags like
regular WP blogs do. There will be an optional page banner image area in the next few weeks.
- Currently there is no way to restrict public access to pages to
certain groups, but this will launch very soon. Also currently, there
is no way to restrict web editors to certain sections of the website.
Ron said these "user roles" will eventually be enabled, but that
restricting public access to pages was deemed far more important.
- Currently no "CSS expose", which would give us the ability to modify
to a certain extent colors and such. There is apparently a
philosophical divide about this issue within IT (some do not want to
give up the CSS to users, because if modified significantly, that would
defeat branding efforts).
- Currently no "import path" for the news-cms system. It is something IT is actively working on and expects to roll out.
- Our complicated site navigation may be a problem in WP. The fact
that the Management Library, for instance, needs an almost completely
different nav bar compared to our top page, might be troublesome for
the way navigation is handled through WP. This may be able to be
resolved through separate templates in WP.
- Tim asked if WP would be able to manage external links dynamically, but
this is NOT a feature of WP. Ron said he will speak to developers on
our behalf, and let Tim know of the results.
- Ron was asked by Sarah S. about our search boxes, and the possibility
of adding them to other pages. The response was that if they include
scripting within the page like javascripts, then the answer is no, and
that
is a big problem for us. WP does have two editing modes: visual and
html. It is possible to do some fancy coding in html mode. There is
also a problem in the html mode, in that paragraph and break tags are
added if line spaces are present. This is tricky, but you can get the
hang of it after a while.
- Danny asked about a section of our site (say the guides), becoming a WP
site of its own. Ron said not possible, WP implementations can only
happen at the top level directory.
- Forms must be written in Telegraph, not Pony Express, which is what our
forms are currently written in. Pony Express forms do not survive the
auto-transition process into WP. Doing this work would take some
time, but it is not terribly difficult.
- There are some non-negotiable links in the footer, including a BU Today link.
At one point Tim asked a terribly rude question; it was quite out of line. Why would we want to pursue this change to WP?
Ron quoted the following possible reasons:
- No more synching! WP has an extensive revision history built into
it. In fact, he believes there is no limit to the number of revisions
saved.
- We specify and control who has write access. No more asking IT to add people and no more Contribute keys.
- Should be easier, once we transition to WP, to then transfer to some different CMS.
- Time-stamping is not an issue in WP! No more disappearing content!
- The entire site look (theme) can be changed with a click or two. In reality, though, this doesn't come in handy very often.
- Bad coding (deprecated tags like "font" and "center") can be easily
cleaned with scripts during the transition, but bad content (broken
links, outdated text) in our pages cannot. Bad content is our
responsibility to clean up. But - WP can help easily identify dead
sections of our website. For example, I was thinking of the vast
amount of stuff in our workfiles directory. We would of course have to
make sure no one had active projects in it first - but there are many,
many files there.
Web Committee Meeting 7/1/09
Carey, Casserly, Hunter, Lewontin, Piekarski, Plunket,
Struble
Next Meeting 7/22/09
Rm. 503 or PERL Classroom
Announcements:
Tim announced that SFX/ILL for Medline (only) is ready to go
Action items:
- Dan P.
will fix a small problem with the memory or sticky tab choice in the
tabbed box.
- Paula
will give Dan P. a draft of the redesigned Astronomy Library page.
- Sarah
H. will continue working with Beth Restig on the African Studies Branch
home page.
- Sarah
S. will work on wording for the pages announcing the transition for the
Virtual Catalog to the BLC WorldCat Local interlibrary loan service.
- Linda
P. and/or Dan B. will arrange a global update
Sarah S. provided an update on the WorldCat Local (WCL)
project:
The Virtual Catalog ends on July 14th for new
requests but remains online until outstanding requests are processed. The
Consortium borrowing piece comes online July 15th. Lending will
start right away but borrowing may be delayed 1-2 weeks. ILL will handle all requests.
Action items from the
minutes of the last meeting:
Dan P. made the Books tab the default in the tabbed box.
There was a small problem with the memory or sticky tab choice that Dan P. will
fix.
Paula talked to Mary F. about the Astronomy page. A new
version was done and is up but it was still a templated version. A
non-templated version (same content) more like the other branch pages is
drafted and if it is ok with Mary F. Paula will pass it on to Dan P.
Sarah H. talked to Beth Restig about the African Studies
Branch home page.
Dan P. removed the space between the banners and the images
for Music and SEL and PERL.
There was more discussion of the WCL. A news item is almost
ready. There was discussion about the meta search piece of WCL. Sarah S. has
asked for a list of the databases included. Committee members discussed the
differences between federated search products and WCL meta search. We will see
indexing and content only for our licensed sources.
For the period of transition from the Virtual Catalog (VC)
to ILL via
WCL we hope to use the brand recognition of the VC. There was much discussion about how to
introduce the WCL search interface. Three pages are needed for the transition
and Sarah S. will work on the wording. 1. Wording for the current VC page (http://www.bu.edu/library/vc/)
announcing the transition to the new service. 2. A redirect page for the 15th
of July saying that the VC is gone and that WCL is replacing it but meanwhile
use ILL. 3. Have ready a “Welcome to BLC WCL” page.
http://www.bu.edu/mugar
IT has given Tom this new URL. He will probably just have it
redirect to the current Mugar Home but the page should be reconfigured to
reflect the dual identity with IT ACS. Hours will be very important.
Global Update
A global update will be need to remove links to the VC and
to Virtual Beebe which will be removed (links will be removed) before August
27th. http://www.bu.edu/library/beebe/index.shtml
will redirect to Library Home. The global update will take care of templated
pages and notify owners. Dan P. will take care of non-templated pages. Linda P.
and Dan B. will coordinate the date of the global update.
Web Committe Minutes 6/10/09
Present: Tim Lewontin (chair), Sarah Struble, Dan Benedetti, Dan Piekarski , Linda Plunket, Paula Carey, Sarah Hunter (minutes)
Next Meeting date: Wednesday July 1, 2:00 PM, Rm 503
Action Items
- DP will make Books/Catalog default tab
- TL will speak with Ruth about renaming her electronic subject guides. DB will forward email communication with Ruth on the subject
- DP will affix the new GA script to all top pages
- DP will review and update CSS for all top pages
- PC will contact Mary Foppiani to bring Astronomy into new page design
- SH will contact Beth Restrick to bring African Studies into new page design
- LP will remove space between javascript menu bar and image on Education page
- PC will remove space between javascript menu bar and image on Science page
- TL needs to keep Susan Wishinsky informed about the global update and subsequent removal of Beebe page
- SH will consult with SS on news items and timeline for Worldcat Local migration
- SS will check for TL if all borrowing will be up by July 15
- SS will look into the currency of Worldcat Local, clarify a summary of migration and perhaps request a Beta instance for WC
Decisions
- Books/Catalogs will be the default tab with tabs remaining in the same order. All other suggestions are noted but no other changes will be made at this time
- Ruth's eResource guide pages will be added back into Subject Guides with different names
- Google Analytics code will be changed on all pages to will load after page loads
- All top pages should be brought into the same design
- Astronomy will remain on the libraries javascript menu
- Image space will be standardized on all top pages
- Beebe page should come down by Aug. 27th and Susan Wishinsky should be informed of all actions regarding Beebe's removal
Possible items for a future meeting
- Review of Subject guides
- Wordpress
- Virtual Catalog migration to Worldcat Local
Announcements
- SS reported that the Worldcat Local Metasearch is currently still in development until August. Therefore, at this time there is nothing to look at. The BLC had applied for a sandbox and we could also be put in a queue for one if needed.
- TL announced that the SFX ILL form is finished and ready to go. As soon as all departments are in agreement, the form can go forward. However, there are changes coming to ILL, most importantly Iliad. The announcement brought up a discussion of verification issues with the Worldcat Local NRE that need to be resolved. TL suggested putting the form up and dealing with issues as they arise.
Discussions
Feedback from Library Wide
Top page:
- Direct link to ILL; there is already one on the top page.
- Books/Catalogs should just say Books
- Eliminate A-Z on the Articles Tab
- Books/Catalog should be the default tab
- This received most comments of anything else
- Tracy's usability report shows that there is a slight improvement in finding articles when articles tab is on top. Finding books remains the same regardless of tab
- Consensus of Web Committee is to keep tabs in same order and default to the Books/Catalog
- SS opened discussion of feedback from other schools that have implemented Worldcat Local - assessment about use (search box, link), where to put on page (books tab vs. own tab), where to advertise and how to advertise. This prompted a discussion of how much tweaking needs to be done on the top page with the major changes that are coming
- There are still complaints about tab appearance, specifically the selected tab is white. An example given by staff was columbia.edu/cu/lweb/services which has colored tabs
- Opposition to Provider list on eJournals tab
Guides pages feedback
- Subject tab guides should be first. SS mentioned that subject guides are still not easy to use and may require review
- Ruth has 2 eResources links that are not on the subject guides. Consensus is for Ruth to rename her electronic guide.
- Committee is unsure if students are even using Research guides. Most students do not like the library subjects. SS suggests usability studies which prompted a discussion of how to improve visibility of research guides. Social tagging and Wordpress's allowance of this functionality was discussed. Wordpress was suggested as a future WC agenda item
Google Analytics
TL noticed top pages loading slowly due to GA. DP can change the code so that the top page loads and displays whether GA is finished loading or not. He has already changed this on the Management page. DP will affix the new GA script to all top pages which should cut down on the slow load time.
Branch Pages
- Branch pages should be brought into the new design (CSS stylesheets and general look), specifically African Studies and Astronomy. DP will review and update CSS for all top pages.
- Astronomy page will stay on the libraries javascript menu after discussion on its importance on being there. The information will remain the same and the design will be updated to the new top page design. Suggestions put forward were to create three tabs: Books/Catalog, Hours and About or alternatively using javascript menus for this same information. PC will contact Mary Foppiani to discuss new design elements.
- African Studies - SH will contact Beth Restrick to bring African Studies into new page design
- It was decided to standardize the image space on all top pages.
- LP will remove space between javascript menu bar and image on Education page
- PC will remove space between javascript menu bar and image on Science page
- DB is working on Mugar page and showed his working page: www.bu.edu/library/mugar/dbindex2.html. Page features slightly different design which prompted a discussion on how much this page and branch pages should conform to new design. SS suggested this page could be used as a test space for new design elements. No decision was reached at this time.
- The communication libraries page will be removed in August. The initial date was Aug. 31st but Aug. 27 was suggested as a better date to match with start of classes. TL needs to keep Susan Wishinsky informed about the removal of Beebe page and the subsequent global update that will be needed.
Virtual Catalog migration to Worldcat Local
- Worldcat Local will handle all Consortial borrowing requests on July 15. There is no overlap for requests. Therefore, planning is needed for the migration.
- SH will consult with SS on news items and timeline for migration
- SS demonstrated what is being tested. NRE will fulfill inside requests and will automatically force an ILL for all outside consortial borrowing
- SS will check for TL if all borrowing will be up by July 15
- Implementation and advertising of the Worldcat Local change was discussed. SS would like to slowly phase out VC page as opposed to bringing the page down suddenly. A redirect or a redirect with information on the VC page was discussed. Also, SS has questions about what to do with VC and Worldcat buttons on Books/Catalog tab. WC actions regarding migration will need to be discussed and clarified at a subsequent meeting
- SS will look into the currency of Worldcat Local, clarify a summary of migration and perhaps request a Beta instance for WC. The batch needs to be reconciled before Beta instance can be requested
- Three things are needed before going live:
- NRE tested and working
- Authentication
- ILS
Web Committee Minutes 5/13/09
Present: Tim Lewontin (chair), Sarah Struble , Dan Benedetti, Dan Piekarski , Linda Plunket (minutes), Paula Carey, Sarah Hunter
Next Mtg: Wednesday, June 10, 2:30pm, Location TBD by Tim.
Action Items:
* DP will change the following on newindex19.shtml:
-wording of the button "Electronic Journal Providers" to "eJournal Providers" and change its tooltip from "list titles by provider" to "title lists by provider"
-the word "versions" to "formats" in the tooltip for "What am I searching"
* DP will change the following on the new main index page for guides.
- eliminate all subject category links from the "How to Find" tab
-remove the tooltips from the tabs
-look into adding Law, Theo, and Med's guides into the Google search of guides.
* TL will send out an email to librarywide with links to the new top page and the new index page for Guides asking for comments by a particular date. The links are:
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/newindex19.shtml
http://www.bu.edu/library/guides/mainindex2.html
* TL will look into changing the following aspects of the new eJournals results page (http://www.bu.edu/dbin/ejournals/ej/index_3.php):
-tab memory
-padding
-background color for buttons
-color of visit links
-updating the style sheet attached to this page
-shortening the tooltips on page
* DP and DB will send Tim the info about the style sheets
* SS will send DP the searchbox she received from OCLC
Decisions:
* WC anticipates eventually renaming the tab "eJournals" to "Journals" on the top page, but not yet.
* WC decided to eliminate the categories from the listing of guides and the tooltips for the tabs on the new main index page for guides.
* WC decided to remove the tooltips from the tabs on the new main index page for guides.
* If possible, Law, Theo, and Med guides should be included in our Google search of guides.
* Minutes should include links or URLs when appropriate.
* Tim will send out links to the new top page and the new index page for Guides to librarywide and ask for comments by a specified date.
* WC will centralize appropriate files about tooltips in common/about
Discussion:
Minutes of 4/28/09- approved.
Announcement:
Tim talked with Bob again about getting a federated search engine. Bob said it's still in play but the budget is still up in the air.
Agenda Topics:
1. Top Page- three tabs
WC reviewed Danny's latest version of this page and recommended a couple of wording changes listed above in action items. Danny changed the size and placement of the boxes so that when you click on a tab the search box appears in the same place. Dan B. reported that Tom Casserly is concerned about the three tabs. Sarah S. agrees with this concern and thinks some some users might be confused about the difference between the "Articles" tab and the "eJournals" tab. Paula asked if we were going to put up this page before letting reference staff see it. She thought it should go up for comment first. Danny thought it could go out for comment with the new guides top page. Paula suggested that they go out for comment with a timetable.
Dan B. noted that David F. feels that in the end-- it's really journals, not ejournals. Dan B. agrees with David, but is OK with eJournals as the tab label for now. Tim noted that we got rid of the "Journal Title" radio button in the "Books/Catalog" tab in the three-tab version. Sarah S. noted that she was originally for adding the "Journal Title" radio button to the Catalog search box, but now finds it misleading. WC anticipates eventually renaming the tab "eJournals" to "Journals", but not yet.
2. Research Guides top page
The WC reviewed Danny's latest version of this page and upon Dan B.'s suggestion decided to eliminate all subject category links:
Arts and Humanities
Business
Education
Government and Law
Health and Medicine
Political Science
Religion
Science and Engineering
Social Sciences
Sarah S. asked if the Google search could cover the guides from Law, Theo, and Med. Danny will see what he can do. If he has any questions about the dynamic Med guides, Sarah S. offered to get in touch with Megan at Med. (Megan Bresnahan, MSI (LIS), Web Coordinator and Information Services Librarian, 617.638.6706, bresnaha@bu.edu)
WC didn't think the tabs on this page need tooltips at this time.
3. eJournals Results page
WC reviewed Tim's latest version of this page. There is an issue with the mouse overs for the access codes. The page is having trouble loading when there are more than 1K mouse overs for access codes. Tim suggested that he limit mouse overs to the first 200 or so access codes. WC agreed that this was a reasonable solution.
WC asked Tim to look into padding, color of the visited links, and updating the style sheet. Danny P. will send the CSS info to Tim.
Dan B. noted that the whole site needs to switch to the new style sheet.
4. WorldCat Local
Drum Roll-- Sarah S. finally gave the WC a demonstration/Q&A of WorldCat Local!
WCL is still in beta, but it's coming. Sarah S. received the search box this week from OCLC. Sarah S. will send it to Danny P.
Dan B. asked how far away is the delivery piece and if ILLiad has to be up and running for the delivery to work. (Sarah S. sent an email to the WC on 5/14 with this info: "July 15th is the NRE/Navigator (the consortial borrowing piece that will
replace the vcat) “go-live” date. It will be necessary to keep URSA
running for a few months in order to complete all of the requests that
were initiated there. (It will not be possible to transfer active URSA
requests into another system.) But no new requests will be initiated in
URSA after July 15th.
"
Tim asked if there is an authentication issue? Sarah said yes, Doug is working with OCLC but BU is a difficult case.
Sarah showed the WC the discovery piece. Told us we won't have much control over the design of the search features, such as the facets. We will get to specify a logo, color, and three links. OCLC has arranged with a number of vendors including EBSCO, Gale, and Wilson to include their indexing of articles and other items in the WorldCat Local database. Libraries can not turn off access to these articles. It's controversial whether or not we would want to do this even if we could. Individual users may limit their searches to particular formats. Sarah S. noted that some libraries are very concerned about the types of materials showing up in WCL from ERIC, PubMed, etc. The results of a search are displayed in this order: home institution, local consortium, WorldCat Libraries.
Tim asked if OCLC is being responsive to problems. Sarah S. said yes, so far, though she cautioned that OCLC is not just working for the BLC.
When referring to the delivery piece of WCL, three terms are used interchangeably-- NRE (Navigator Request Engine), Navigator, and VDX software. Some BLC libraries are already displaying ILL buttons in their installation of WorldCat Local, e.g., Northeastern.
Users are authenticated before they see the request form. Theoretically, users will be authenticated using BU's UIS and EZProxy. Once a user has been authenticated, Navigator will pre-populate a form with brief bibliographic information and questions that the user will have to answer (who they are, preferred pick-up location, and for returnables if they want a chapter, or a specific volume). Navigator will do load balancing among lender institutions for items held by more than one institution. If an item is not held by a BLC institution, NRE will pre-populate an ILLiad form. Authentication and status remain sticking points for BU's implementation. Some BU users pay for ILLs, others don't. BU authentications is not currently set up to show affiliation. Some users have multiple affiliations. Tim suggested that Charles Ball would be a terrific IT person to work with on these issues.
Sarah S. reminded us that BU's catalog isn't going anywhere. WorldCat Local runs off information from our catalog, so our catalog must be maintained. Our catalog has shortfalls, and WorldCat implementation is revealing and addressing some of these limitations.
Tim noted that WorldCat Local will be the replacement for the Virtual Catalog. Sarah added that WorldCat Local integrates searching and borrowing.
WC Question: Will WorldCat Local replace BU's catalog as the main catalog interface? Sarah reminded the WC that this isn't just up to the WC, that staff should be brought into the process. A couple of problems that other institutions are facing with WorldCat Local and the question of whether or not to replace the home institution's catalog are that WCL doesn't always recognize local records or eBook records.
Sarah S. closed by saying that she thinks WLC is going to be a great product and that students will flock to it even if it's not ready for prime time. WCL is being deployed in several phases-- as a searching tool, as a replacement for the virtual catalog, and potentially, as a federated searching tool.
Note about III: III had been intending to do away with the telnet interface to III. However, BLC libraries with III might be buying back some of the menus formerly available in the telnet version.
5. Possible Web Committee projects
-Site maintenance
-Branding (tied up with a decision on whether or not we'll migrate the site to WordPress)
-Tracking outbound links on the website by Google Analytics:
-complicated by our use of Contribute
-we could do a global update, except for deep linking
-Danny P. will start tracking outbound links for Pardee
-WordPress migration
- major league project
- DP questioned if enough members of the WC would have the skills to maintain it if we ran our own installation of WordPress
Web Committee Minutes 4/28/09
Present: Tim Lewontin (chair), Sarah Struble (minutes), Dan Benedetti, Dan Piekarski , Linda Plunket, Paula Carey, David Fristrom, Sarah Hunter
Next Mtg: Wednesday, May 13. 2:30pm @PERL lab.
Action Items:
* TL will draft new wording for text behind "what am I searching?" on (e)journals tab on top page
* DB will ask Rhoda if she uses "citation search" from current ejournals locator page
* DP will make extensive minutiae changes to top page tabs. Exact details of changes below in minutes.
* DP will make changes to guides page: search box, tabs wording, and list reorganization. Exact details of changes below in minutes.
* TL change wording on ejournals results page. All use of "online catalog" to be replaced with "library catalog"
* TL will selflessly and patiently revisit the wording of results from ejournals search, switching back to text display from tabular display. Suggested changes below in minutes.
* DB will create classname=biggerfont CSS tweak in support of Tim's work to change ejournals results display as above
* SS will email systems staff and have Firebug Firefox extension added to laptops and 503 PC
* ?? poll reference staff re: use of a-z list of ejournals
Decisions:
Boolean instructions &etc for ejournal locator search need to be maintained on the public site for staff use, perhaps hung off of new templated results page for ejournal search in some manner - as title attribute, link, or non tables-impacted version of javascript (Dan P and Tim will work this out)
When time comes, write & release a news item about the page redesign, specifically ejournals locator's metamorphisis into a tabbed search box
Discussion:
Announcement:
Still no news on next year's budget, re: federated search.
Unclear, even if funds available for federated search, if ExLibris will move fast enough for us to implement by start of fall semester 09.
Agenda Topics:
1) New "journals" tab discussed.
A) Wording for "what am I searching" link/tooltip should reflect what is behind search box, not instructions on how to search. Those instructions should be maintained elsewhere, however.
B) Which of the current multitude of links from ejournals locator page need to make it on to the search tab replacement? Link or links that we keep should be turned into buttons consistent with style from other 2 tabs
Index and Databases link can be cut, Citation Linker and A-Z list are
subject to further discussion and input from non web-committee staff on
if these links are used. Electronic Journal Providers should be retitled for clarity, wording "list of titles by provider" was proposed.
C) Radio button placement consistencey from one tab to the next
D) Journals tab in lowercase, others in uppercase. Lack of consensus about which to do, but we did agree it should be uniform use across all 3 tabs
E) Remove "*requires BU login" wording from articles tab
F) Extended and unresolved discussion re: naming the new tab (aka the Ejournals vs Journals debate of ought-nine). Reasonable concerns about familiarity, our usability study's demonstration of popularity of "Ejournals" wording, vs pedagogical merits of encouraging format-independent research, plus the fact that journal title search of catalog will be disappearing in this update as well... Semi-serious consensus on using EJournals now and gradually phasing out the "e". Were in agreement that we should release a news item about the page redesign
G) Not yet ready to schedule the open meeting to present changes to staff
2) Guides Directory Index page redesign discussed
A) DP presented, and committee discussed, two options for searching of contents: Google Advanced search of both /guides/ and /eresources/ and BU search of /guides/ only. TL certain BU search could also be made to include both directories. General sense that Google's display of results was more readable than BUs, despite fact it's not branded. DP will tweak page to following specs: single search box with text of search button to read "Search Library Guides", with google advanced search behind the search
B) Brief discussion of expanding search to include instruction directory. That directory is currently the home of much unmaintained content- some of it in storage for later updating and reuse, other pages are just languishing there. DB suggested a later step in which we add a tab called something like "Course Guides" that pulls out the best of this content as well as other course specific pages currently located elsewhere (branches etc). Will require cleaning up Instruction directory and finding a home (plus associated staff training) for currently stored-for-reuse content. We will not act on this at this time.
C) EXTENDED discussion of tab naming and organization of the guides page. We were all reminded that there's a reason we periodically tackle and then ignore this behemoth organizational task. We did agree that pretty much anything we do will be an improvement on the current page, though, so that provided a nice starting point. We eventually reached that sort of consensus in which no one is really happy but we're all equally unhappy, and mostly about the same things. There will be three tabs:
- tab 1: ACTIVE TAB will be named Research Help. Listed (alphabetically?) in that tab will be: How to Cite, Information Literacy, Locating Full text Articles, Primary Sources, Open Access, and Research Process
- tab 2: by title a-z remains as it currently is
- tab 3: named How to Find, and will house all the remaining guides, as well as duplicate listing for 3 of the ones from the Research Help tab; Locating Full Text Sources, Open Access, and Primary Sources
3) Ejournals Results Page discussed yet again
A) Agreed that all use of "online catalog" to be replaced with "library catalog"
B) Once we all saw the actual tabular display, our earlier agreement to switch from "paragraph style" results list to tabular results list was recanted. A majority found the paragraph style results more readable.
C) We agreed that we want to emphasise the most pertinent pieces of information- the title and years available. We were not in agreement about how best to deemphasise the catalog link, but font changes to title link may resolve the problem. TL and DB will work together on CSS class for titles.
D) DF was a strong advocate (with support from other committee members) of minimizing the text in these results. We did not get to the point where we all agreed on what wording changes/cuts to make. TL will revisit this.
E) The access codes information will need to be on this page somewhere. There was little discussion of how best to do this. TL and DP will explore the options.
Web Committee Minutes 4/17/2009
Present: Tim Lewontin (chair), Sarah Struble, Dan Benedetti, Dan Piekarski , Linda Plunket, Paula Carey, David Fristrom (minutes)
Next Meeting: Wednesday, April 29th, 2:00pm, Location TBD
Action Items (all by next meeting):
* Dan B. will update web org chart and move to wiki (and cc Susan Wishinsky, since she will still be on chart).
* Tim will provide Dan P. with new text for tool tip for Journals search tab.
* Dan P. will add RefWorks "about" link to top pages.
* Dan P. will add "Journal Name" to edit box under Journals tab (in demo).
* Dan B. will add (most of) the eResources into the guides and category lists.
* Dan P. will incorporate Dan B.'s changes into his guide demo and remove the eResources tab.
* Tim will revise his eJournals demo, and think about what happens to the existing links to the eJournals page. Revisions include:
- Add tools tip explaining things like "BU-px" in eJournals result list
- Don't give a choice of format; use table format
- Have search box (with current search filled in) on both successful and unsuccessful results pages.
Decisions:
* On a quarterly basis, web committee members will review broken link report for breaks in "their" part of the web structure (based on web org chart), and send reminders to page owners telling them exactly which links are broken on their pages, and then follow up to make sure links are fixed (and provide technical assistance as needed).
* At the next meeting we will review revised versions of Dan P.'s new top page with "Journals" tab, and Guides splash page, and Tim's eJournals search results page (with search box). If we come to a consensus that we like them, we will schedule a time to present them to the wider library community to get buy-in.
* For now, we will not add "Database" and "Guides" tabs, though that could be revisited in the near future.
Discussion
Broken Links and Web Org Chart
Discussed how to handle broken links (with some detours into discussing WordPress, new WordPress sites, and our distributed organization). Current system is to send out periodic reminders to everyone to check broken link report and fix broken links on their own pages, but not everyone is doing it.
Should one or a few persons do the whole thing, or could we improve the current distributed model? Finally decided to update web org chart and send out quarterly, targeted messages as described above under decisions.
Top Page
The new demo pages created by Dan P. and Tim were discussed. In general they received a positive reception, though a number of small changes were requested.
Dan P. presented a new top page that includes a third tab for Journals (and removes the "Journal Title" radio button from the Books/Catalog tab). Most people liked the new page, though there is some worry that people will miss their "eJournals" link. Agreed that it needs a better tool tip, and Tim will provide one. To make it clear that users are searching titles and not content, "Journal Name" will be added to the search box.
Dan B. wanted even more tabs, for guides and databases. This had some support, but since we don't currently have a search for database names, and adding any additional tabs would require reorganizing the page to give the tab boxes the whole width, we put it off for now.
Guide Page
Next Dan P. presented his new Guides splash page. Everyone loved it, but the discussion turned to the long-standing issue of why there are both Guide pages and eResource pages. Though there are historic reasons that we have both, they create a lot of duplication and the distinction between the two is unlikely to be obvious to patrons.
Given the magnitude of the task that would be required to come up with a single, unified solution, we decided that for now the eResources tab will be removed from the splash page, and Dan B. will come up with a list adding (almost) all of the eResources into the guides and category lists (except where they are pretty much exact duplicates).
It was pointed out that with all these changes we are contemplating we will need to explain them and get buy-in from other librarians. Assuming we can reach consensus ourselves, we will think about a meeting to present the changes to others.
eJournals Search
Tim presented some new eJournal demos. After much discussion we came to a number of conclusions. We liked the idea of having tool tips explaining things like "BU-px". We liked the idea of only having one output format, and preferred the table format. We liked the idea of having a search box (with the current search filled in) on both successful and unsuccessful results pages. Is it possible to actually show the results of a catalog search on the same page if no e-journals are found? Tim will create a new demo incorporating these changes.
Web Committee Minutes 4/2/09
Benedetti, Carey (minutes), Fristrom, Hunter, Lewontin (chair), Piekarski, Plunket, Struble
Next Meeting: 4/15/09 2pm Library Conference Room
Announcements:
Anyone wanting statistics from Google Analytics on page use for a particular Research Guide or other page can request them from Danny P.
Tim demonstrated an ILL/SFX form that he is developing that pre-populates with
citation information. This function is required by PubMed to allow links to our full text.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny P. showed an alternative library home page with a tabbed box with tabs along the left side and a draft of a Guides page that is tabbed across the top.
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/mugar.shtml
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/guides/mainindex.html
There was a discussion about how Guides are used. Almost 70% of traffic to those pages comes in from search engines. It was suggested that meta tagging is needed to make the Guides more findable. Questions were raised about the importance of meta tags to Google searching.
Danny's draft page featured a keyword only search. This led to a discussion of the radio buttons options currently available. Adding a third tab to the tabbed box currently on the top page for Journals and eliminating the Journal Title radio button on the catalog tab were discussed.
Paula and Linda reported on the recommendations that Tracy sent to the Web Committee on 3/30/09 based on the most recent round of usability testing. All are happy with the Last Name, First Name prompt that appears in the tabbed box Library Catalog when the author radio button is selected. Sarah S. will talk to Dave S. about doing the same in the full library catalog.
Usability recommends a friendlier more positive message when searches in the eJournal Locator do not find the title searched. The message should not start with "Sorry" and the link to the catalog should say Library Catalog rather than Online Catalog. Tim will try some versions.
It was suggested that Usability might want to wait on testing the top page since changes are expected to the tabbed box and WorldCat Local and eventually federated search.
Tim reported that a federated search product is still planned but the timetable depends on the budget.
David F. reviewed some possible website changes with examples from other sites. The main categories are Home Page Changes, Databases Page Changes and Federated Search The document is available here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcnjrgrt_132cfkd8jf2
corrections and comments to pac@bu.edu
Date: 03/05/09
Present: Dan
B., Paula, David , Sarah H., Tim (chair), Linda (minutes)
Next meeting:
Thursday, April 2, 2pm (location?)
Action items
·
Tim will continue to press for a federated
search tool.
·
Tim will continue to work on integrating SFX and
ILL.
·
Dan B. will work on migrating news stories from
News CMS to WordPress. He’ll discuss the possibility of the Theology Library
hosting this on their server.
·
Danny P. will look into why IE renders the
search box incorrectly and is slow to load the page. Danny will also work on a
final version of the rounded tabs for WC review.
Administrative
Sarah Hunter was welcomed.
Minutes of last meeting accepted.
Announcements
Status of request for Federated Search Tool
Linda Carr and Tim spoke with Bob
about a federated search tool. This is now a priority of Linda Carr’s. Bob
mentioned that he’s likely to have more information about the budget in
mid-March, so we should know more after that.
Academic OneFile & search box on top page
Academic OneFile is changing platforms
and the implications aren’t clear for the search box on the top page. Dan B.
has taken a look at the new interface and didn’t like it. Tim is questioning
whether we’ll be given the new API. We won’t know until it rolls out.
SFX & ILL forms
Tim is working on integrating SFX
into the ILL mix. Both Bob and the Medical Library want this to happen. This is
a pre-requisite if we want to enable SFX links in PubMed. There are problems,
but Tim will continue to work on this. Once this is implemented, ILL forms for
journal articles will pre-populate with citation information. Tim would like to
force users to check Catalog first but this is turning out to be tricky to do.
News CMS
Dan B. proposed that we change
platforms for News on the top page. He suggested we migrate from News CMS to
WordPress. Sarah Hunter, a member of the News Team, said it’s difficult to
collaborate on postings with News CMS. Dan
B. said that one of the problems with News CMS is that it deposits three images
for each image added. Everyone agreed that moving to a new platform was a good
idea. Dan will follow up on this with Jack Ammerman. Danny P. said that it
would be possible to tag news items for different branch libraries in WordPress.
Projects
Usability
Paula and Linda discussed the
findings of the fifth round of usability testing on the Library’s top page.
http://www.bu.edu/library/workfiles/usability/website/round5analysis.html
Top Page Tabs
Danny showed us his latest version
of the tabbed search box. Everyone agreed that this should be implemented as
soon as possible.
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/newindex16.shtml
eResources Modifications
David, with very little time
remaining in the meeting, walked us through a tour of library websites which
use different ways to direct students to their list of databases, ejournals,
subject categorizations of databases, and federated search tools. David pointed
out the salient features of each.
http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dcnjrgrt_93fmv36hgk
Site Clean-up, identifying page owners
We ran out of time before getting
to this topic and Dan Benedetti’s email postings.
Date: 02/04/09
Present: Dan B (minutes), Linda, Tim, Paula, David, Tom
Next Meeting: 03.05.09, 2-3:30, Mugar Conference Room
Decisions/Tasks:
-Tim will invite Sarah Hunter to join the group
-Usability subgroup will analyze this round
-Members will look at various tab outline styles
-reconsider
transitioning the entire site to branding guidelines over this coming
summer
-Linda will contact R. Mendez to ask about the status of our Word Press play space
Announcements:
a) Tom reports WCAT local can go public without some operational
features. Those can be implemented on some alternative site, and then
made live. Authentication issues regarding Law, Med, etc. have yet to
be resolved, as far as Tim, Tom, or anyone at BU knows.
b) Music would like to get going on a changeover to a tabbed box for
their home page. To that end, Sarah Hunter will be invited to join the
group. Tim will contact her.
c) Linda will continue to administer the email list-serve and website file-editing privileges.
Agenda minutes:
1) Usability
The next round is done. Ten participants were corralled at the Mugar
printer output window, five undergrads and five grads. Analysis should
be completed by our next meeting. We talked briefly about some first
impressions, but nothing worth repeating until the actual analysis is
done. We've had several responses to the tabbed search box via email;
one which came from Ruth will result in action. Members will look at
various tab outline styles to see if one appears to be more rounded;
then, we may come to investigate how hard it would be for us to
implement.
2) Branding
Following a lengthy discussion of the branding issues in terms of
template changes, and whether this would significantly impact our
user's experience on our site, we collectively decided to reconsider
transitioning the entire site to branding guidelines over this coming
summer. Certain css definitions, like the font style, seemed easier to
implement than other things such as the research guides template, or an
area in the banner for the branch home names. In trying to decide a
way forward for the site, we became a bit stalemated because: we are
getting some (quite a bit, it seems to me) praise for our current top
page, we need to have an eye on the Word Press developments (and we
don't care to kill ourselves on a major redesign if we'll move to it
anytime soon), the usability committee has some feedback about the
current banner area, the current banner area on our home page does not
include a site search while underlying pages do, and perhaps most
importantly there are other main pages (databases was the example,
research guides index is another) on which performing some usability
would likely result in drastic and maybe needed changes. We are still
investigating how best to do a site index, and that might also help us
get a foothold on how to cleanse our site of unnecessary or defunct
pages.
Date: 01/07/09
Present: Dan B, Dan P, Linda, Tim, Sarah, Paula, David
Upcoming Meeting: 01/28/09 - Mugar Conference Room
Decisions/Tasks:
-Committee Chair: Tim was chosen as the new web committee chair. Term limits were discussed. The census was that the first meeting of each new year should be used to decide whether a new chair person will be selected or to continue with the current chair.
-Global Update: Dan B. finished a global update, he transitioned links over to the new "connect to eresources" page. Dan P. will search out untransitioned pages among the Pardee pages.
- New Top Page: Tim brought up concerns with using Wilson as our "articles" tab. Dan P. created Academic OneFile and ISI articles tabs. Acadmic OneFile was chosen as the article tab for the new page rollout.
Worldcat: Sarah will continue to work on Worldcat Local. She mentioned that by the end of February we may be able to use it as a backup to the articles tab.
Metalib: The decision was made to put an interim top page up and continue to search for a way to pay for Metalib. The group believes that the true solution on our quest for the "magic box" will be resolved by Metalib.
Usability: A new round of usability testing will be taking place. The questions can be found here: http://www.bu.edu/library/workfiles/usability/website/round-5-scripts-questions.html
Date: 11/19/08
Present: Dan B, Dan P, Linda, Tim, Sarah, Paula, David
Announcements: Assessment group report received
Next Meeting:
12/10/08 2-3:30pm, *RM 503* to demonstrate new top page to staff
Today's DECISIONS/TASKS:
-TL will try to reconfigure settings within Wilson so "exit program"
link leads back to library homepage
-DP will switch search link opened by Wilson box on lib homepage so it
opens a second tab/window (solving the no "back" button problem in the
browser)
-DP will insert code from behind Wilson BASIC search to enable
automatically anded boolean search (instead of phrase searching)
-Decided that even if metalib is on indefinite hold, we will go ahead
with Wilson search box from top page
-DP will remove branding from version 8, but keep all other aspects of
that version except as detailed below
-DB(?) will change wording of "connect to eresources" link to "How to
Connect to eResources" We will compare Google analytic and IT stats for
hits to page after 1 month
-DP add link to Databases (explanatory text: by subject and title)
-Decided to run a global update in Jan (DB) to update templates
-EVERYONE browser compatibility testing of new version of page when DP
completes it
Today's AGENDA:
Followup to Wilson searchbox testing session (detailed minutes below)
Next regular meeting was not scheduled, preliminary agenda items:
* Branches' new top pages - Will take a lot of coding and policy work.
Do we postpone them in favor of Branding?
*Branding
____________________________________________________________________
A) We all took a look at David's Kindle, kind of a new technology show
and tell session.
B) Recapped Wilson search box trial of 11/13, working from DB's
excellent notes.
-As far as we can tell, Wilson's not tracking the # of simultaneous
seats/searches we're doing.
-Of the problems DB enumerated from the mtg, many were fairly minor,
and we were willing to live with. Others we need to fix (as detailed in
action items list).
C) We agreed that even if Metalib is not going to be purchased in the
foreseeable future, we will go forward with Wilson box, even though we
had initially discussed it as an interim solution. Potential of Worldcat
Local as a solution to single-search-box was aired. It will not be
available for us to use in a functional manner until June 09, and both
BU and BLC top priority for it is as a replacement for our current
Virtual Catalog software as a consortial searching and borrowing tool.
We can explore other uses as more is known, but we wanted something
earlier than the BLC Worldcat local implementation timeframe allows.
D) Discussed what we still need to do/decide in order to go live with
the new homepage and Wilson search box:
Branding-
Agreed not to have top page branded until we are ready to completely
brand site (for sake of internal consistency). The new top page is not
working off the old stylesheets or templates. DB has changed it to use
the branding-specified font. That change we'll keep.
Link to database list missing when books/catalogs tab active-
We'll add a 4th link to the right side of the screen, as specified in
action items. Links to worldcat and virtual catalog are only available
under books/catalogs tab, but we were not as concerned about those not
being top level links.
Discussed connect to eResources link, Google Analytics show it's heavily
clicked. Will change wording and reassess in ~1 month's time
Backups-
If Wilson catches on and starts blocking concurrent users (or simply
goes down for maintenance) we need a backup in place. We discussed
several options:
1) CSA- no physical sciences, rejected
2) EBSCO- insufficient physical sciences, rejected
3) Gale Onefile- it's failings as a target from SFX are far worse than
its internal search. There are no limits on simultaneous users (ARE
THERE?). We do depend on statewide license for access. We decided to
make this our second choice (primary backup).
4) ISI Web of Science (or ISI entire suite? Medline, biosis in
future?)- Covers both arts/humanities and physical sciences. Nearly
incompatible with refworks, very little internal full text, though SFX
links work fine. Should be fairly easy to create a search box for. We
agreed this would be our third choice (secondary backup).
Browser Compatibility of new design-
DP is aware of IE6 issues, but logs still show ~10% of users are coming
in on that browser. He will work to resolve those issues. Once he has a
working final draft incorporating changes we decided in this meeting,
we will all troubleshoot it on assorted browsers and OSs before going
forward.
Actual rollout -
LP will show to Bob to get his approval.
Announce on Librarywide (ask News group to do an item that it's forthcoming)
Need to present to staff (meeting RM 503 on 12/10 slated for that)
E) Where does the new design live, BU Libraries homepage only, or branch
top pages? If Branch top pages, will box be customized for their subject
areas? (eg business source premier for pardee, ISI for SEL). If so, SS
expressed concerned that the differences need to be explicit or branded
in some way (ie instead of "articles", tab would say "Science
articles"), so that users who use multiple library sites can understand
the search is not identical on each. Needs further discussion, on agenda
for next regular meeting.
Date: 11/4/08
Present: Linda Plunket, David Fristrom, Tracy Thrasher-Hybl, Paula
Carey, Dan Piekarski, Dan Benedetti, Sarah Struble, Tim Lewontin
Upcoming Meetings:
--Wilson database simultaneous user test: (at PERL) 2pm Thurs. Nov. 13
--Web Committee meeting: 2pm Wednesday Nov. 19
Announcements:
--Sarah has been appointed chair of a Worldcat Local coordinating group.
--OCLC has negotiated with WilsonWeb to include Wilson databases in the
Worldcat Local search. Details on how this would work, and when it will
be implemented are still to be learned.
Decisions:
The group will focus on an interim, non-branded, configuration pointing
towards a simultaneous user test. Following that, the group will focus
on branding issues. Group will consider a "plan B" in the event that
WilsonWeb doesn't comfortably suffer the simultaneous user load.
Several other searchable groupings under consideration include:
ISI
EBSCO databases
CSA databases
Gale databases
Google Scholar
Currently 2 proposed pages have been produced by Dan Piekarski:
non-branded:
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/newindex5.shtml
branded:
http://www.bu.edu/library/management/workfiles/newindex7.shtml
Action Items:
Linda will send and email to refnews, inviting people to participate in
a simultaneous use test of WilsonWeb search box.
Dan Piekarski will work on top page as follows:
--Tabs will default to "Article" search (not Catalog)
--Tabs will be highlighted to make it more obvious what has been chosen
--Toolbars will cease being gray, with gold being an option. Danny will
seek other color options.
--Delete text above search box reading "Search WilsonWeb" and move
"(What's this)" to the right of the "Go" button.
For time being we will NOT impose ejournals locater on the catalog
search "journals" option, but default to an actual search of the catalog.
WordPress
Linda will request IT provide us a WordPress "play space" for our
self-education.
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