7505 Final

Here is the link to the final paper JL and I worked on: http://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1aSBS21LQrAWIwClno-GmCZf3JUCKGI1_d7M87whSkMs

Here is a link to my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz9cqY4dMZQ

In which decisive action is taken

The first three libraries I contacted were unable, for various reasons, to be interviewed at this time. I then posted my questions on WebJunction, in the Wordpress for Libraries group (wp4lib) discussion, where I hoped someone would respond.  No one did (and I removed the questions before posting this).  Somewhat saddish and after several failed attempts, I managed to locate someone willing and able to interview for Assignmnent 3. The person I 'spoke' with is Wade Stewart, a library tech specialist with AC Buehler LIbrary at Elmhurst College and for the interview I used his library's "ask a librarian" chat option.

Below is the chat transcript, complete with original misspellings and occasional emoticons. (^_^') You may also notice that the entire thing ended up taking about an hour and a half because we were both working during the interview. My very deep apologies for getting this in so late.

13:36 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: Hello, my name is Celia and I'm a student at a Valdosta State University in Georgia working on a project about CMS libraries. If you work with the library website and have 15 min or so, would you be okay answering a few questions about your website?
13:40 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: this is a transfer, please see: https://libraryh3lp.com/queues/ec_reference/calls/guest527619@libraryh3lp.com/537386
13:40 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: this is a transfer, please see: https://libraryh3lp.com/queues/ec_reference/calls/guest527619@libraryh3lp.com/537386
13:46 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: If it is an inconvenient time or if you would prefer not to use IM, I could send the questions via email.
13:47 wades@libraryh3lp.com: sorry, we thought we lost you
13:47 wades@libraryh3lp.com: I am more than happy to answer some questions
13:48 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: Thank you very much! 1. How and where did you hear about CMS?
13:49 wades@libraryh3lp.com: I first discovered CMS in in my grad program for library and info science. I had taken several different tech related courses, such as library 2.0 & web design for libraries.
13:51 wades@libraryh3lp.com: Library Science programs have be heavily promoting the use of CMS's in libraries
13:52 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: That's for sure, we've been talking about things like Drupal and Wrodpress a lot in class! Question #2 What was the motivation to adopt CMS for its current use?
13:56 wades@libraryh3lp.com: I believe the two biggest reasons we adopted a CMS here at Elmhurst: We wanted to be able to manage a large amount of content and we wanted to be able to give our librarians the ability to update web pages with little to no previous html / php / css coding knowledge.
13:57 wades@libraryh3lp.com: Also, over the past two years we have been teaching a course called First Year Seminar which has students using a lot of library 2.0 tools, particularly blogs, which we host through our Wordpress installation.
13:58 wades@libraryh3lp.com: It was much easier to provide all of these elements through a single system rather than having multiple tools hosted in different locations
14:00 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: So ease of use and less tech requirements were part of your decision-making criteria, was there anything else you took into consideration? Cost?
14:04 wades@libraryh3lp.com: I know that costs plays a part in other institutions, however, we are sort of an exception. We have always maintained our library website in-house and have had an outside consultant maintain some of the server-side elements such as our php/mySQL databases. We just moved it from hand-coded, static pages to dynamic, CMS-based pages. We still pay for a consultant for the server-side parts.
14:05 wades@libraryh3lp.com: Part of our decision was also wanting to be an early adoptor
14:06 wades@libraryh3lp.com: CMS's seem to be the cool, must-have thing right now. I'm very happy that our college is using a CMS, however, I personally think that we should have spent more time evaluating our CMS options, such as Wordpress or Drupal or Joomla, etc
14:08 wades@libraryh3lp.com: My predecesor brought Wordpress to elmhurst, however, I believe that Wordpress is still not the best choice as a CMS, because right now, you need a lot of plugins to force wordpress to act like a CMS where as Drupal, for instance, is a CMS right out of the box, so to speak
14:08 wades@libraryh3lp.com: It is a good choice for some smaller institutions, but I feel like we are out growing it...
14:09 wades@libraryh3lp.com: I guess as simple as it sounds, the ability to manage large amounts of content instantly is a pretty big reason.
14:12 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: Okay, 3. What are the important benefits or advantages of CMS you are using now over the old system or another CMS system you've used in the past?
14:12 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: Sorry about the lag.
14:16 wades@libraryh3lp.com: sorry about the delay... I'll be back in just a moment
14:31 wades@libraryh3lp.com: sorry for the delay, i'm back
14:35 wades@libraryh3lp.com: As far as benefits/advantages are concerned, it's really the same answer as the last question. It is really easy to add or update content to our website without having to deal with any hand-coded html, css, or php, etc. If a minor change needs to be made to an element that is site-wide, it can be updated in one place instead of making the same change individually across hundreds of pages.
14:36 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: No problem, I realize you must be busy!
14:37 wades@libraryh3lp.com: Also, For me as a developer, I don't have to worry about someone, without coding knowledge, making a mistake that shuts down the whole website
14:38 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: Which could be problematic... ^_^ What has been the patron response to your use of a CMS?
14:43 wades@libraryh3lp.com: I think for the patron, they get a more efficient and smoother running website. We have had good responses with patrons saying that our website is easier to navigate and the organization of content makes more sense. One of the most critical elements we pay attention to, in terms of patron use, is usability statistics, such as Google Analytics. We make sure that the most visited sties are the most accessible, while also trying to determine whether or not the least accessed content is the least accessed because of it's of lesser importance or because it's buried in the site and hard to find.
14:45 wades@libraryh3lp.com: We also can see what types of computers (MACs, PCs) and browsers (IE, firefox, etc) are accesses the site the most, so that our site is compatible across multi-platforms & browsers
14:46 wades@libraryh3lp.com: At the same time, I'm not sure that the average user really notices that we are using a CMS
14:48 wades@libraryh3lp.com: We are about to start a library technology survey for incoming freshman and transfer students... so in the future, I will have a better answer to that last question
14:51 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: Okay, I hope your survey goes well! The last question I have is: Is there anything else about your experience with CMS that you would like to share?
14:57 wades@libraryh3lp.com: I guess what I would say is that while having a CMS is great, it is very important to pick and choose a system that works best for your organization, taking into account the needs of your web designers, content creators or other staff users, and patrons. Obviously they all need different things from a web site and it's important to find that middle ground that works for everyone. It is important to not pick a particular CMS because it's the current popular item. You have to beware of current and future needs/issues with your website.
14:58 wades@libraryh3lp.com: I hope that was helpful
14:58 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: It was! Thank you very much for your help. I'm sorry to have taken up so much ofyour time, I didn't expect it would be quite so time consuming! Oh, one last thing, do I have permission to use your name and the name of the library you work at in my assignment or yould you prefer to remain anonymous?
15:02 wades@libraryh3lp.com: it's no problem. You are free to use our information. My name is Wade Stewart, library tech specialist with AC Buehler LIbrary @ Elmhurst College. Also, just in case you need it, the wordpress site was originally built and designed by my predecessor, Kyle Jones (http://thecorkboard.org/). If you need anything else from me, you can reach me at wstewart@elmhurst.edu
15:02 guest527619@libraryh3lp.com: Thank you very much! I hope you have a great day!
15:03 wades@libraryh3lp.com: you too! Take care.

Fiddling around with my blog

I should probably be sleeping, but as I'm not tired yet and I can't really justify staying awake without doing something at least vaugely class related, I decided to try a few things out here.

• Music: Within Temptation - Our Solemn Hour
• Music: Kalafina - Storia
• Watching: Aladin

A Long Weekend

This weekend was surprisingly busy.  I did my best to keep up to speed on class things, but haven't finished with our assigned readings for this week quite yet.  Aside from that, I went to visit my grandmother in Waycross, enjoyed the Memorial Day sales that were going on (I bought about 7 new shirts, almost all of them cost less than $10!), and got a little sunburned.

Things at work were a little hectic today, but J (my amazing boss) told me they would be.  It was my first time working after a 4 day weekend and even though I didn't go in until the afternoon, it still got crazy busy from time to time.

 

 I've run into a little snag with assignment 3.  The person I e-mailed just got back to me saying that they're overrun right now with the startup of their summer reading program, so I'll have to find someone else to answer the questions I sent.  Ya'll can't see me right now, but I'm making my terrified face.  This means I have to hope that the institution I e-mailed this evening will have someone with enough time on their hands and enough kindness in their heart to get back to me within the next 2 days.  x_x  Oh well, maybe I'll get lucky.

Hope everyone else is doing better than me!  Also, this is what I use to encourage myself to be a good student.

Wordpress

I don’t think it was necessarily difficult to learn to use Wordpress, just time consuming.  This is, however, a familiar experience for me when I encounter new technology, not something unique to Wordpress itself.  Working on a site that already had content made me a little bit hesitant to try things that I normally would have.  My usual way of figuring new things out is to just jump right in without really looking at tutorials, just to see how much of it I can understand intuitively.  I think that going about things in this way gives me a better opportunity to get the feel of a website.  However, with this assignment, I was worried about messing up the content for the other group members.  Therefore, I created another Wordpress account to experiment with (though I did do a lot of the less risky experimenting with the one we were supposed to work with). 

It wouldn’t be quite right to say that Wordpress is fun, but it is less stressful than other, similar websites that I have checked out since beginning this assignment (Drupal comes to mind).  Whenever I ran into trouble that I couldn’t figure out on my own, I checked out the available guides.  They usually got me back on track fairly quickly.

I fiddled around as much as I dared with WP.  Sometimes, I had to get creative, like when I couldn't get the custom fields to do what I wanted without just editing the html, and sometimes I would see things that I thought were nifty and then forget where it was that I saw them!  I think that's what I have the worst time with, being able to remember where to find everything.  Oh well, that's something that would eventually work itself out (probably) with enough practice. The drag and drop we use for widgets is nice, and I really liked how easy changing themes was, but I do wish we had more available themes to play with.

My teammates and I got along fairly well, despite one or two accidental setbacks and the late addition of our fourth member.  I do think that with an extra week or two we could do a whole lot more, but for a crash course in WP, I feel we’ve done admirably.  As far as I can tell, everybody in our group is 'getting it' now.

I laugh when I look at how long it took me to figure out how to embed videos into our page though, I can’t believe how slow I am sometimes!

Whew, I'm wiped!

It has occurred to me that using something like Wordpress isn't difficult, exactly, just very time consuming.  For example, when I start looking at things that you can do and trying to figure out how to do them, it tends to take a rather ridiculous amount of time.  Perhaps that's just me though, I'm not sure.

In other news, the library I work at has a DVD thief may their socks get holes and their hair fall out.  Grrr.  Can anyone think of a good way to stop them?  I really don't get why someone would steal something that they can see for free anyway.  Their behavior irks me, whoever they are, and they make bun-bun unhappy too.

I hope we catch them soon!

Add +1 to Bluff

Today I got to close the library by myself!  I was a little bit anxious, but things turned out okay in the end.  Things picked up a little bit about half an hour before closing, but it never got really backed up at the desk.  Though I did have some patrons come in 2 minutes before closing.  They were nice though, got in and got out fairly quickly, so I ended up leaving only about 10 minutes after closing (though most of that was due to my own paranoia and obsessive list double-checking).

I realized, as I was in the parking lot, that I had forgotten to turn off the lights in the bathroom, so I had to go back in and brave the beeping alarm turn them off.  All in all, it was only a little oopsie, and since I remembered before I left for good it hardly counts, right?

Just barely made it back in time for our 7505 guest speaker, Cliff Landis!  He seems like a pretty good guy, and he definitely knows his stuff.  After the class meeting, I spent a little bit of time looking up the various explanations of cloud computing, because it seems to be a very debatable term.  CC appears to be similar to a LAN with online data storage, though I know that's something of an oversimplification. 

I'll get back to schoolwork tomorrow, for now it's time to clean house!

Seriously, xkcd is Spying on Our Class

Tell me that pic isn't hilariously relevant to the new class module.  If it's too small to see, just click on it and it should pop open a bigger version in another window.

In other news, I forgot my keys at the house today.  Not my car keys, my work keys.  Thank goodness J was there to help me close!  It isn't that unusual for me to be a little forgetful, but I can usually remember things I actually need.  Must be nerves, or stress, we did have our first assignment due date...

Oh, and Kona rolled in something dead earlier.  Yuck!  I didn't know until she bounded up to me and I started petting her.  She got a cold bath for that one.  Here's a pic of her, for those interested.  She loved the mostly empty peanut butter jar.  I wish I had been able to get a video...

Expect more dog pictures later.  Possibly on their own page (if I actually get around to making another page to this thing like I keep planning to).

Bye for now!

Wiki Assignment

Assignment 1, Part 4

The library I have chosen to use is the library I work at. It is a public library that is part of a branched library system. As a branch library, when funds are limited, as they are now, the resources available to the staff dry up fairly quickly. The staff at the library consists of the Library Manager and the Branch Assistant, though on Tuesday and Thursday someone from the main library comes to drop off and pick up books. Patrons of the library are primarily people without much computer knowledge.

The library system I work for, the SGRL, has two separate wikis on both pbwiki and wetpaint; however, they are not generally used by patrons and are only sporadically used by staff (such as for specific programs, like the summer reading program). This is because the main form of communication between branches is through e-mail, which is perceived to be more secure and reliable (not to mention checked far more frequently).

Because of this, I took quite a bit of time contemplating this part of the assignment. As I narrowed down the available wikis, the primary concerns I had were with money and how long the wiki would take to create and maintain. Since the budget has been undergoing many cuts recently, it is important that the wiki be free. It is equally important that its upkeep not require much time or energy. I also considered whether or not the primary users of the wiki would be staff or patrons.

In the end, I decided that it would be best to market a library wiki to the pre-teens, teens and young adults that use the library as they seem to be the most likely to take an interest in and be able to utilize one. The goal of the wiki, then, would be to promote programs directed at the above age groups and also to provide a space for them to meet online and discuss books they might be interested in. It would be monitored and updated by the Branch Assistant as time permits. The wiki I would choose for my library would be Wetpaint. Not only does it meet the criteria I mention above, it is free, offers WYSIWYG editing (which enables even non-techies to work on the wiki), and does not have any ads (which might make it seem like our library was promoting products or services when we aren’t).

Why I Dislike Making Plans

I began my day with a decent sort of plan to get homework and some housekeeping done before work in the evening. I even managed to start on some of it before the family van broke down in the parking lot of a Valdosta Wal Mart. I wasn't driving, but I was the only person available to come save the day. What is important to understand here is that I live in the middle of nowhere so going to town takes at least half an hour both ways. Oh time, I know where you’re going, but can do nothing to stop you!

After the trip to town, I washed Bruiser, my adorable but slightly chubby 7 year old beagle. What I thought was a flea problem turned out to be a skin problem, so now he gets medicated baths whenever he starts itching. Poor guy, he hates baths, but I think he hates scratching all the time more!

Later, when I left the house to go to work, I got tapped from behind at a traffic light. It was really bizarre, because I’ve never been in any sort of traffic accident before, and I hardly think this counts as one. My car wasn’t damaged at all, partially because I had my foot off the brake and partially because the guy hit my tow hitch. It probably also helps that the guy had been stopped at the light and just took his foot off the brake by accident while he was fiddling with his radio.

Oh well, I managed to make it to work on time in spite of everything. What an oddly eventful day, surely I can justify putting off schoolwork until tomorrow?

What the Hex?

I just discovered how to change colors using a hex table.  :)  Really, it should not make me this happy every time I figure out how to make something work, but I can't help the feeling of satisfaction that bubbles up.

On the agenda for today is laundry, finishing Module 1 sections 3 and 4, finishing part 4 of  Assignment 1, and then work this evening.  Looks like I'll be pretty busy, especially if I get distracted by something quasi class related (like hex tables) again.

A Bit of Fun

I saw this and thought, how appropriate! I love reading xkcd (even if I do have trouble understanding it sometimes)!

Let’s see, I spent time today reading the material in Module 1 Section 3. Most of the articles seem have similar source material. I always wonder how relevant technology centric info is more than a year or two after it is published. Learned a bit more about RSS feeds today, I think I’ll wait until tomorrow before I do any more with them though. On the other hand, I’m going to dive in to the wiki part of our assignment tonight. Wish me luck!

Also, today was my very first official work day in the SGRL system! J seems really nice, and she’s good at explaining things too! I have tons to remember, but thanks to my previous experience with volunteering, I have less than I would otherwise. This is a very good thing considering the amount of time it seems to be taking me to figure out how to do the 7505 assignments.

It’s funny, I wouldn’t say that the course requirements are difficult, because they seem (IMHO) to actually be fairly simple once you figure out how to accomplish them. It the figuring that takes a lot of time. I’m having flashbacks to cataloging. There’s always info available to help you out, it’ll just take forever and a day to find it. ^_^

I have also just become fascinated by html, which is very bad for me because I really don’t have the time for it right now. I’ve also never been very good with languages (foreign languages, programming languages, take your pick). Oh well, maybe the novelty will wear off quickly and I can go back to being technologically neutral.

Making Progress

I spent this morning watching toddlers in the FBC nursery. L (who is 2) loves being picked up and spun around, which is fun until it’s been going on for over half an hour. @_@

After church, I spent most of the day going through the Module 1 resources and trying to figure out this blog thing. I have had a previous blog, but I never really did anything with it outside of course requirements. Needless to say, it was very boring and only added to under duress. This one I will try to make a little bit different.

I’m also always just the teensiest bit worried about posting my personal information, thoughts, and everyday doings on the web. Is it weird to dislike the idea of posting such things?

Oh well, hopefully this course will help inspire me to be better at keeping up with technology and finding useful ways to implement things that make access to library information easier for patrons. While I do spend quite a bit of time on Facebook, I’ve never really been interested in keeping up with technology for personal reasons. I got on Facebook because all of my friends were on Facebook. I don’t use MySpace because very few of my friends are on MySpace. In the same vein, I don’t have any desire for an iPhone and I don’t use text messaging, MSN, or Twitter. I have created a wiki page before, but that was a few years ago and I’m not entirely certain I remember what I did.

In other news, my experience with html was zero before today, but I modified a little bit of it to remove something from the template I found for my blog. Huzzah for progress!

The beginning

Hello all!

For those who think the title of this blog sounds eerily familiar, it's a nod to former library cat Dewey Readmore Books. For those who haven't heard of him, here's a link that tells his story: http://www.deweyreadmorebooks.com/

I look forward to posting more soon.