MINUTES: 04/24/2006 (teamspeak)

AGENDA: 4/24/06

Present: Kuric, Waymouth, Moriconi, Havert

Start: 8:33pm

End: 10:50pm

• Possibility of adding a "home" link to the photo gallery pages
• Edit / open in dreamweaver. Original creation was in MS Powerpoint
• Additional development of the index.hml page to include hotlinks or
• Pulled content from a volunteer website page
• A navigation link to Librarian's Internet Index
• Added to the left panel navigation under ‘resources and collections’
• Plan for the presentation - who's saying what?
• Keith will present and the other team members will chime in
• Who is going to insure that the final version from Earthlink space is uploaded to the NPL server?
• Ben will fix links and upload.
• Ben - can we tighten up the spacing by bringing the footer up at all? It feels like the pages have too much blank space.
• Mike will take a look at this, but this doesn’t seem to be a factor that can be fixed, rather it may be a factor of the navigation.
• Something needs to be done with the Dial-a-story page
• Text added, needs to be fleshed out by NPL staff

AGENDA: 4/24/06

Our final meeting is tonight at 8:30 pm. (That's 7:30 pm Keith Standard Time)

Things I would like to see addressed are...

• Possibility of adding a "home" link to the photo gallery pages
• Additional development of the index.hml page to include hotlinks or
• A navigation link to Librarian's Internet Index
• Plan for the presentation - who's saying what?
• Who is going to insure that the final version from Earthlink space is uploaded to the NPL server?
• Ben - can we tighten up the spacing by bringing the footer up at all? It feels like the pages have too much blank space.
• Something needs to be done with the Dial-a-story page
  

Please add to this list throughout the day as you think of additional things that need to be covered this evening. I look forward to meeting with all of you online, and it has been a pleasure working on this project with each and every one of you! I think that we have a top notch deliverable!

SITE: Update of Pictures

The website now features a picture gallery link down the right side of each page.

Pictures are a combination of our shots and NPL stock photos.

MINUTES: 03/26/2006 Online meeting (Teamspeak)

Meeting: 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Present: Havert, Moriconi, Waymouth
Absent: Kuric

1. Individual reports:
1. What have each of us been up to?

i. Attempt to connect to the NPL web server with information received last week failed. Contact to the NPL technical staff will occur first thing on Monday morning. WE tried both SSH and ftp connections.

ii. MM has had the pictures and think some are useful for the website

2. What do we need for next steps to proceed on project?

i. BW or MH: Add the content changes recommended by Linda

ii. MM: Next week will add the comment lines to the page to document the content and changes and metadata

iii. MH: Will contact NPL technical support

2. Feedback from NPL: Did everyone receive the email update regarding the OK for the recommended sites?
3. Next steps for each member
1. Be sure if pages are worked on that you confirm with others who are online that you are not working on pages that are being worked on by someone else. Ask first.
2. Continue working on projects outlined in 1.a. above
4. Set next meeting time prior to end of Sunday's meeting--Will set during next class meeting, prior or after class.
   

AGENDA: 03/26/2006 - Online Meeting (teamspeak)

Sunday, March 26, 2006, 4:00-6:00pm
Online Teamspeak Connection

Agenda

1. Individual reports:
   
1. What have each of us been up to?
   
2. What do we need for next steps to proceed on project?
2. Feedback from NPL: Did everyone receive the email update regarding the OK for the recommended sites?
3. Next steps for each member
4. Set next meeting time prior to end of Sunday's meeting
   

DESIGN: color hex values

The last color should be added as the already visited link color. This would be done with an a:visited {color: #996699;} in the CSS.

SITE EVALUATIONS - Ben

Degenstein Community Library:
· Contact Information provided (email, number, address, hours)
· An “Event” link to show upcoming activities with calendar
· Types of services that are provided (books, video, tape, etc.)
· Policy list for library cards and rules
· Child Resources
· Easy to read text, textured background
· Link page to other internet resources

Greentown & Eastern Howard School & Public Library
· Picture of library
· Contacts include email
· Online catalog link to books in library
· Colors are too vibrant, strains eyes (yellow, green, white)
· Policy list
· Programs provided
· Local info, town history, and high school information
· Calendar of events and online resources
· Board of trustees are shown
· Information including hours, phone, and fax are in a different link

Fortville-Vernon Township Public Library
· Layout is vague
· Telephone, fax, and address are included on page
· ***Suggestion box***
· Home page, kid page, library services, best seller list
· Libraries and reference links also included

Green Free Library
· Appealing colors
· Easy to see text
· *Map*
· Contact information provided on home page
· Announcement board
· “New updates” announcements
· Databases, contact us, POWERlibrary, services, student resources
· Links, databases, catalog, children’s programs
· Pictures included
· On startup page, “features” are shown

Morton Township Public Library
· Futuristic like setup
· Text that can be difficult to read
· Hours, address, phone
· Directions, monthly calendar, services and programs, library board and staff
· Links and online catalog
· *Mission statement and history

Houghton Lake Public Library
· A link off of the county website
· Too basic
· Links not related to library
· Hours, address, numbers, email on startup page
· Services offered
· Population served
· Eligibility and cost

Sherborn Library
· Visit counter, address and number
· Hours of operation in monthly increments
· Catalog, Programs, Requested materials, arts and crafts fair
· Internet resources, picture of library, town of Sherborn link

Bistol-Washington Township Public Library
· MSNBC news and weather at startup
· Hot titles and award links at startup
· Mission statement and library FAQ’s
· Calendar
· Easy to read text with large heading
· Email librarian
· No address, hours, or phone

Willard Library of Evansville
· History on library at startup
· Search databases, location, staff, tour, genealogy, art collection, happenings, haunted, legends, resources, and guestbook links.
· Vague
· Boring attributes
· Hours, address, and closings under location which can be confusing

CONTENT: Reference Links

The following is a list of sites that I think we should consider providing links for from a page to be used by both patrons and library staff. They are links that I regularly find helpful at SJCPL. This is by no means a complete list.

Telephone

YellowPages.com: This site is handy for looking up telephone numbers for both businesses and individuals. Has reverse look up capabilities.

Internet 800 Directory: toll free number look up

Government

AccessIndiana: The official website of the state of Indiana

FedStats Home Page: Government statistics at your fingertips

Internal Revenue Service: Easy access to federal tax forms

General helpfulness

Librarians' Internet Index: A hotlist that doesn't have to be updated because somebody else does it! Personally - I think this should be a main menu item.

Automotive

Kelley Blue Book: Find the value of almost any used car or truck


That's all for now - but I'll drop more on you as I think of them.

Site Updates

The navigation CSS is in place; simple rollovers we can add to their effect if desired. Any links placed in the navigation cell will take on the same style as the present ones.

The static pages are established; ready for content to be added. They are named "sample_lowercase" with and underscore joining words. As noted no uppercase characters only lowercase.

Links are established; both in the navigation area and breadcrumb area. Each area has different CSS attributes therefore the link colors and font styles are different.

We need to begin work on filling in content on the static content pages. Work will also need to begin on CSS sytling for the main content text. Some styling was done at our 2.23.06 meeting.

Further discussion on colors and font styles may need to take place as we begin to add more text.

Pictures will need to be implemented into the site now that we've selected some shots we want to use. We're still waiting on NPL photos for site integration as well. Below are some items that need discussed:

• size of photos
• placement on the page (template)
• cropping of pictures to fit dimensions

Others issues that need discussed:

• Width of main table - will it suffice at its current 700 pixels??
• Server space?
• Scripting?

SITE EVALUATIONS: Mandy

The layouts and content on two of the three pages that I reviewed were similar and it is understandably so because those two libraries appear to be from the same library district. The color schemes and navigation were different, but some of the content was the same.

Two of the sites either have sites that are down for the long haul, or are no longer active websites. I tried searching for updated links to no avail.

The high school library site I reviewed locked up my workstation on one of the pages. I've made notes about what I liked and what I didn't like below for the two sites I was able to more thoroughly review.

Mandy

Fort Branch-Johnson Township Public Library
Fort Branch, IN
www.library.gibsoncounty.net/

• dead link

McBain Community Library
McBain, MI
www.mcbain.k12.mi.us

• One link locked up my browser

Mansfield Free Public Library
Mansfield, PA
www.ncldistrict.org/mansfield

• colors lend a historic feel
• disjointed ‘ask a librarian’ page, but seems to be centrally served
• FOL page is great, with their activities and fundraisers
• Networked resources page
• Children’s resources (internet) page
• Library history
• Summer reading program
• Events
• Contact us

Thomas Beaver Free Library
Danville, PA
www.ncldistrict.org/danville

• Very much like Mansfield
• Color not stimulating
• Variety of services indicated
• Changing block of information on pages; statically coded, but relevant to the context of the page

North Manchester Public Library
North Manchester, IN
www.nman.lib.in.us

• Site unavailable