Installing Drupal was quite an experience. I have downloaded several image-rendering modules, mostly because I was not sure how they worked, so as a result some are installed without probably being used and duplicating the image.module .
I felt that the taxonomy part needed some additional features. I downloaded and installed the tag cloud block – Cumulus and Taxonomy Breadcrumb. Cumulus provides a user-friendly overview of available terms and the quantity of these terms is also visually presented in an intuitive way.
Taxonomy Breadcrumb, on the hand, provide users with a functional clue about their momentary location and allows them to backtrack within a collection. However, this feature would be much more useful had I had the collection more structured and more deeply nested.
I feel that Drupal is a useful presenting tool, relatively easy to use and to set up. The set up is definitely more difficult, but I think that a Drupal site can be indeed designed in a very user-friendly way both for the user-visitor of the site and for the user-content creator. Who, on the on the hand, does not have to have web design or html skills in order to produce aesthetically appealing and easy to navigate pages.
Drupal, however, is more about access to digital resources, not necessarily suitable for their managing and for tasks required for digital preservation. I can imagine that Drupal can work well in tandem with a DAMS application that would handle the storage and manipulation of various manifestations, and Drupal could enable access to the view manifestations and appropriate descriptive metadata.
Monday, 28 September 2009
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Pace
I find the pace of tech classes fine. There is a lot to explore and try. The reading seems a bit more time-consuming than it was in the 672 class. The management component compliments the technology part well. One needs to change gears and instead of finger tips start using one's head again.
However, it is much more difficult to plan work for the whole week now, because there are three days in between the time the technology assignments are made available and the management ones appear in the d2l. Since I do not know what I will have to do from Wednesday on I try to do as much hands-on as possible by then. Then I do work on the theoretical parts and later return to the practical exercises which after that intermission look like anew, so I have to go through some of the steps again, which in the end can be seen as a benefit, because repetition makes perfect.
However, it is much more difficult to plan work for the whole week now, because there are three days in between the time the technology assignments are made available and the management ones appear in the d2l. Since I do not know what I will have to do from Wednesday on I try to do as much hands-on as possible by then. Then I do work on the theoretical parts and later return to the practical exercises which after that intermission look like anew, so I have to go through some of the steps again, which in the end can be seen as a benefit, because repetition makes perfect.
Monday, 7 September 2009
Content Management Systems in Libraries
Content management systems (CMS) are becoming an important presence on campuses and in various cultural and heritage repositories. They often bring unified policies concerning web publishing, elevate the need for the technical expertise of the contributing staff, and can also enable more immediate interaction between an institution and its audience.
What I found interesting while reading through the articles in the special issue dedicated to CMS of the Library Hi-Tech (2006, Volume 24, Issue 1) is that most of the scenarios presented were home-developed systems; few institutions would adopt an already developed package. Even in the case of Morehead State University, as described in Migrating a Library's Web Site to a Commercial CMS within a Campus-wide Implementation *), where the university opted for an outside vendor to provide them with a CMS, they chose a relative new-comer to academic software and caused considerable problems. Most likely, the universities often wanted to built on expertise of their own staff and preserve workflows that may have considered key and well-tested. In some case, the technolust of those in charge was not hidden very well (Kent State for instance).
The question is whether an opportunity to revise workflows and streamline operation was not missed when the architecture of the new CMS system tried to preserve the existing set-up. I was also uneasy when reading about elimination of the code view and relying solely on WYSIWYG and forms. That is often very limiting. I can see why in many cases elimination of the possibility edit code of the page is imperative, but on the other hand I experienced several situations in the past when a small touch in the source code of the HTML could easily fix an issue, but it was not possible because of the system set-up.
I read with particular interest article CMS/CMS: content management system/change management strategies **). This article transparently listed explored methodologies, lessons learned, possible pitfalls and in the end practical recommendations. The articles focused more on the managerial issues and questions of project management. The most important point I took from the article is that the preparation and planning phase is key. To know one's own structure, role and mission is important when implementing CMS, so that the structure and workflows were as effectively channeled as possible and the possibility of duplication minimized. I was also reminded that it is unreasonable to expect that the current state of institution will be preserved, as the "Virtual change will drive organizational change."
After all, implementing an institution-wise CMS is an opportunity to re-think one's role, reevaluate service provided to institution's users and their effectiveness. In short, it is an opportunity for improving the function of an institution.
References:
* Tom Kmetz, Ray Bailey: Migrating a Library's Web Site to a Commercial CMS within a Campus-wide Implementation. Library Hi-Tech (2006), Volume 24, Issue 1, pp. 102-114.
** Susan Goodwin, Nancy Burford, Martha Bedard, Esther Carrigan, Gale C. Hannigan: CMS/CMS: content management system/change management strategies. Library Hi-Tech (2006), Volume 24, Issue 1, pp. 54-60.
What I found interesting while reading through the articles in the special issue dedicated to CMS of the Library Hi-Tech (2006, Volume 24, Issue 1) is that most of the scenarios presented were home-developed systems; few institutions would adopt an already developed package. Even in the case of Morehead State University, as described in Migrating a Library's Web Site to a Commercial CMS within a Campus-wide Implementation *), where the university opted for an outside vendor to provide them with a CMS, they chose a relative new-comer to academic software and caused considerable problems. Most likely, the universities often wanted to built on expertise of their own staff and preserve workflows that may have considered key and well-tested. In some case, the technolust of those in charge was not hidden very well (Kent State for instance).
The question is whether an opportunity to revise workflows and streamline operation was not missed when the architecture of the new CMS system tried to preserve the existing set-up. I was also uneasy when reading about elimination of the code view and relying solely on WYSIWYG and forms. That is often very limiting. I can see why in many cases elimination of the possibility edit code of the page is imperative, but on the other hand I experienced several situations in the past when a small touch in the source code of the HTML could easily fix an issue, but it was not possible because of the system set-up.
I read with particular interest article CMS/CMS: content management system/change management strategies **). This article transparently listed explored methodologies, lessons learned, possible pitfalls and in the end practical recommendations. The articles focused more on the managerial issues and questions of project management. The most important point I took from the article is that the preparation and planning phase is key. To know one's own structure, role and mission is important when implementing CMS, so that the structure and workflows were as effectively channeled as possible and the possibility of duplication minimized. I was also reminded that it is unreasonable to expect that the current state of institution will be preserved, as the "Virtual change will drive organizational change."
After all, implementing an institution-wise CMS is an opportunity to re-think one's role, reevaluate service provided to institution's users and their effectiveness. In short, it is an opportunity for improving the function of an institution.
References:
* Tom Kmetz, Ray Bailey: Migrating a Library's Web Site to a Commercial CMS within a Campus-wide Implementation. Library Hi-Tech (2006), Volume 24, Issue 1, pp. 102-114.
** Susan Goodwin, Nancy Burford, Martha Bedard, Esther Carrigan, Gale C. Hannigan: CMS/CMS: content management system/change management strategies. Library Hi-Tech (2006), Volume 24, Issue 1, pp. 54-60.
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