Archives
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Phoenix Gets it Right
When I first looked at the new Phoenix Public Library (PPL) web site I thought: nice job�they probably outsourced everything. Why? Because the site feels like a high-end commercial site. We’ve all seen the bells and whistles before�when buying a book, tracking a shipment, or performing any number of other complicated transactions online. Finally, my thinking ran, whoever created one of those sites did one for a library.
Was I wrong. The entire site (www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org), both front- and back-end, was done in-house.
Even if we ignore the high-end nature of the site for a moment�after all, not everyone has a programmer at their beck and call�there is still plenty at which to marvel. What really stands out, especially after talking to some of the people involved with the project, is the attention to how things work, and don’t work, on the popular, commercial sites. PPL’s web team looked closely at Google, Amazon, and other consumer sites their customers use regularly. Then they applied what they learned, with embellishments, to the delivery of library services.
The robust nature of these applications, together with the dynamic nature of the site and the integration of information and services (here is where the programmer/developer comes roaring back), puts this site head and shoulders above other library web sites.
This site is far beyond what my libraries have. I wish the article gave more detail about how they did it.
<nitpick>
- The color scheme, while fun and energetic (doubtlessly the goal), is too bright and contrasty. I find it difficult focus on any one area to see what’s there because my attention is constantly being drawn in other directions.
- No standards support: nested tables galore, not even a doctype. Not necessarily the most important part of web design right now, they are a key factor in accessibility for the disabled. They also make changes much easier.
- There are two sets of important links outside the white box that defines the content. It could be the browser-grey background but those areas look abandoned and ignored.
</nitpick>
Website Design — laura
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
7 Things RSS Is Good For
New Media Musings: 7 Things RSS Is Good For is an excellent resource for explaining the usefullness for users. At the end is 5 Reasons Why Companies Should Publish an RSS feed, an equally convincing set of arguments for bosses.
Web Tools — laura
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Copyright Guide
Copyright Clearance Center, a licensing agent for text reproduction rights, has launched a Web-based resource for business professionals called The Guide to Copyright Compliance. The interactive guide is designed to assist companies in implementing corporate best practices for achieving compliance with copyright law and also helps organizations educate employees on how to lawfully use the content required to do their jobs.Peter Scott’s Library Blog
Copyright — laura
Monday, July 26, 2004
Weblogs in Libraries
As Steven Cohen points out, Weblogs: Do they belong in libraries? never really addresses that question. The author does a nice review of how they are already being used but doesn’t mention any reasons for or against.
It wouldn’t take very long browsing through my archives to realize that my own answer is an unequivocal “Yes!” However, that doesn’t take into account the valid objections some may have or the fact that blogs are not appropriate for all situations.
Blogging — laura
9-11 Report
- 9-11 Commission Final Report
- The 9/11 Commission Report, Executive Summary (HTML)
- The 9/11 Commission Report (Full Index)
- Wired News: Techies Reshape 9/11 History
Patriot Act — laura
Monday, July 19, 2004
Accessability Test
Assessing the accessibility of fifty United States government Web pages: Using Bobby to check on Uncle Sam by Jim Ellison
This study evaluates the current accessibility of U.S. Government Web pages for people with disabilities. Several Federal laws, and specifically Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, require Web pages of government agencies to be accessible to people with disabilities. This investigation built on past studies that used the Web accessibility evaluation tool Bobby to assess various types of Web sites. The home pages of fifty U.S. government agencies were reviewed for accessibility based on Section 508 guidelines. This study establishes that the U.S. government has not met its accessibility goals.
Accessability and standards compliance are hard. But, like accurate cataloging and indexing, they are things that must be done and kept up with.
Website Design — laura
Thursday, July 15, 2004
New Look
If you’re reading this in a newsreader, you might want to switch to a browser to see the new design. I haven’t done anything to the underlying structure. Just polished the visuals and changed the right bar a bit. Hopefully it will be easier to browse as well as prettier. If you have any comments, I would love to hear them.
Site — laura
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
NYT Fading?
As I’m sure you know, the online version of the New York Times is “hidden” behind a registration system. Access is free but that single impediment makes the site unlinkable, which makes it irrelevant for web-based conversation like blogs, emails, newsgroups, and message boards.
According to Boing Boing, it also blocks the Google search engine, which makes the content unfindable for surfers just looking for general information.
Eventually, content providers have to catch on that the absolute control they crave does them more harm than good. Right?
Computing News — laura
Real Library Blogs
I recently came across two excellent examples of blogs published by libraries.
Librarian Geek lists monthly tips about technology in the library. The library where I work has had excellent results from publishing weekly tips, they remind patrons we’re there and show that we’re current with technology as well as advertising services.
The Bio-Med library’s blog concentrates on keeping readers current with information in the area of Public Health. This is a natural extension of current-awareness searches and the information services offered by corporate librarians.
Blogging — laura
Copyright Chart
Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States is a chart (html and pdf), that spells out length of term for various types of works.
Copyright — laura
Catalog computers
One of the problems with switching library catalogs to web versions is that the dedicated computers start being used for Internet surfing instead of catalog searching.
Limiting Web Access is a set of instructions on how to keep those computers from being used for general searching while still allowing use of the catalog. It is written for the Phoenix browser, which is now called Firefox.
Web Tools — laura
Measuring Value
TechnoBiblio: Grappling with changes in measuring our value makes a good point about the fact that the way libraries have traditionally measured the value of their services didn’t work too well before and are almost completely worthless now.
What the patrons at my (research/academic) library want most is to be able to search for sources and download the actual content from their results (not just the citations) at their desks. Those numbers can be extremely valuable to us but unfortunately many of our journal and database providers aren’t giving them to us yet.
Library Links — laura
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Into the Blogosphere
Into the Blogosphere is a set of peer-reviewed articles on blogging. The interesting part, aside from the subject, is that they have aloud comments on each article. It will be interesting to go back in a couple of weeks and see what has been said.
Education — laura
Saturday, July 10, 2004
LIS Archives
E-LIS - Eprints for LIS is an open access archive for scientific or technical documents, published or unpublished, on Librarianship, Information Science and Technology, and related application activities.
dLIST, Digital Library of Information Science and Technology.
Open Access — laura
Thursday, July 1, 2004
Web Standards
[Developing With Web Standards] explains how and why using web standards will let you build websites in a way that saves time and money for the developer and provides a better experience for the visitor. Also discussed are other methods, guidelines and best practices that will help produce high-quality websites that are accessible to as many as possible.
Website Design — laura
