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B23. Web Laboratory: Redesign as an Opportunity for Experimentation

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Presenter(s): 
Heather Cook, Bergen Community College
Yolanda Sheppard, Bergen Community College

When it came time for our library to think about redesigning our website, we wanted to take an experimental approach and explore an alternate means of creating a library website. Our goals: low maintenance, flexibility, easy updating, and small learning curve. To accomplish this we embraced open source software and cloud resources. The new website is a pilot project this year so we can gather feedback from the college community. This session will demonstrate our new website and discuss the challenges, decisions, and our general experience in this endeavor.

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Fri, 2012-01-06 16:13 — Edith Sirianni
Edith Sirianni's picture

Additional Information

The Drupal Version that is being used is Drupal 7.7.

Fri, 2012-01-06 14:42 — Edith Sirianni
Edith Sirianni's picture

Recorder's Summary

Summary of presentation submitted by:
Edith Sirianni, Bergen Community College
 
The scope of Bergen Community  College’s web  page re-design project was discussed by the presenters:  Heather Cook and Yolanda Sheppard. The web  project provided an opportunity to develop and experiment  with a completely new web page and apply the results to improving and updating the existing web page. 
Development of the  experimental  web page followed  a clear website vision statement and specific website design goals. Concerns  about the existing web were a priority in the development of the experimental page. The library’s existing web page is somewhat difficult to navigate, the ability to sort databases by subject has  been lost,  and there was a need for editing,  updating   and consolidating existing pages. Successful  innovations to the experimental web site would then be applied to the existing website.
In conjunction with the web project, original cataloging of BCC Library’s databases  added additional keywords to  the contents  and  the notes in the MARC records. The ability to utilize Innovative’s  (BCC Library’s OPAC) keyword search  provided improved database searching in the experimental website.
All web pages were edited and re-organized for  the experimental web site. The existing website was  updated to make sure that all the information  on the experimental and the existing web pages  matched and was  up-to-date.
Several components of the experimental website are considered   “in the cloud.” Formsite is used for library instruction scheduling,  Libguides for student research guides,  Drupal  for the web page design,  Google Calendar because it requires less updating and Google Forms for user feedback. The experimental site is being hosted remotely by Lyrasis. Google calendar has been added to the existing website. Formsite and Libguides were already linked on the existing site.
Technical and design   input was provided to the web site team by the chair of the IT Department. Drupal was suggested and eventually chosen as the alternative to the current Share- Point platform used for the existing website. It is planned that during the spring semester,  students in the web design class will be asked to critique the new website and provide input.
User  feedback  has been  provided  by utilizing Google Forms  linked from the experimental website. Many responses were received, but the most important responses were those that included suggestions or  mentioned  the problems that the user encountered.   All feedback and suggestions were discussed by the members of the committee and considered for implementation.
The experimental website has been useful for editing, updating and finding “outside the box” solutions  for application to the current website.
Those who attended the session agreed that the experimental website was an improvement over the existing site and recommended that it should be implemented.
Summary of Questions / Comments:
  • How many choices are on the drop-downs for the catalog search? This was shown by accessing the experimental website and demonstrating the drop-down.
  • What Drupal version is being used for the experimental site?   Mostly Drupal Version 7.
  • Will domain registration be a problem if the site continues to be hosted by  Lyrasis? This is a potential problem that requires investigation.
  • What will happen if students do a  keyword search for “mergers” in the database search box? Students can change their search to the keyword “business” or they can ask the librarian for assistance.
 

 

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