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Two of the sites either have sites that are down for the long haul, or are no longer active websites.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

INFO: Diagram of current NPL site

I did a quick diagram of the current NPL site in Inspiration. It is saved as a .pdf so that anyone will be able to open it. I marked the links as either simply "link" if it points to an outside page that we have no control over, or as "html" if the link points to a page that we will be designing. From the "Home" page the links are marked as "menu items" and will be part of the navigation system.

I would like to see us eventually do another diagram with ideas for the new site design. Anyone from the project team who would like to use the Inspire file for the purposes of adapting it for the new site can help themselves.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!


PDF of current site

MINUTES: 02/23/2006

Minutes: Face-to-face, IUSB, Schurz Library
Date: February 23, 2006
Waymouth, Moriconi, Havert

1. Setup of the voice TeamSpeak 2 software.
2. Discussion of current and projected site content
1. ACTION: Mike will be doing a graphical design of the site and will post this weekend to the blog.
2. We need to request any additional content / pages that NPL will want on their new site.
1. Do you want a children's collection and services page? Please provide content.
2. Wants to retain current content / services. We will begin with that in the first design and add as needed.
3. 
   
3. Discussion of site color and layout
1. Graphic logo: a little yellowish with the color scheme in the template
2. ACTION: Mike is sending retouched pictures to Ben
3. ACTION: Mike is editing some CSS
   
4. For top heading area we would like to have a photo of the Carnegie library straight on to use for the graphical heading. Requested from LY.
5. Design and layout of initial draft site template
6. Creation of Mission Statement page with content in order to see what the site would look like live.
7. ACTION: Email to LY to request additional content and advisement on appropriate email contact information.
   
4. Next steps:
1. Keep working on assigned tasks
2. Check in with Keith
3. No meeting before class next week
   

SITE EVALUATIONS: Michael

Annie Halenbake Ross Library, Lock Haven, PA

• Nice clean design
• Link to Librarians' Internet Index
• Programs tab = simple solution to calendar events
  

Snyder County Libraries, Selinsgrove, PA

• Use of a programs tab rather than calendar
• Link to Fedstats from Reference Page
• Nice children and teens pages
  

Sparta Free Library, Sparta, WI

• Not such an attractive page
• Scrolling banner is an out-dated concept
• Inconsistent look / poor color choices
• Page could be 10 years old
  

The Colony Public Library, The Colony, TX

• Very basic
• A bit dull - needs pictures
• Link to city information page is nice
  

Things I've learned:

1. Pictures and graphics add interest to sites
2. We need to determine what links NPL would like to include in their Reference page
3. Will we be creating a Children's Page?
4. If add-on modules are going to be included - they look best if the interface is redesigned to work with the website design
   

UPDATED: Project Plan

The link below is our latest revision of the project plan. Team members: from here we will assign portions to analyze and put due dates to each subtask.

NPL - Project Plan

MINUTES: 02/16/2006 Face-to-Face meeting

Team: Please post questions and comments as necessary.

Date: 02/16/2006
Time: 4pm - 5:30pm
Place: IUSB VIC Classroom

1. Broke spreadsheet into sections and prioritized each task. Next step will be to set milestone dates and adjust spreadsheet to include newly identified tasks and new organizational columns (numbering and start / finish dates).
   
2. Updates on individual action items
1. MM - PDA feed not viable for the scope of the project due to technical considerations
2. BW - IUPUI file space may not be available until late on; MH will contact LY for development space on NPL server
3. KK - went to NPL to take photos of interior of library for group use in lieu of NPL supplied photos
4. MH - found javascript for refresh graphic
   
3. Division of peer sites for review - assigned - post feedback to group through email, blog or next meeting.
4. Discussion of graphics needed for present content; all will consider based on interior photos and content report; share by email.
   
5. Meetings procedures: minutes to be emailed to MAB after posting to blog.
   
6. General discussion of procedures and need to be flexible in the face of changing targets.
   

AGENDA: 02/16/2006: Face-to-face meeting, IUSB, prior to class

Date: 02/16/2006
Time: 4pm - 5:30pm
Place: IUSB Lounge or Library study room (TBD)

Agenda Items:

1. Prioritize and order project plan. Mandy will supply printed copies of the combined spreadsheet (all - 20 minutes)
2. Updates on individual action items (all - 2o minutes)
3. Division of peer sites for review (all - 5 minutes); bring feedback to group through email, blog or next meeting.
4. Discussion of graphics needed for present content (all - 5-10 minutes)
5. Meetings procedures: minutes to be emailed to MAB after posting to blog; feedback on blogsite and plan positive (all - 5 minutes)
   
6. Other items? (all - as time permits)
   

INFO: PDAs and the web

I've been looking into the PDA compatibility issue, and my findings are not promising. Today I checked with Elizabeth Castro's HTML For The World Wide Web which is considered to be the web designer's bible by most of the designers I've spoken with. She devotes one of the largest chapters in the book to WML: Web Pages for Mobile Devices. In a nutshell, we would have to code, by hand, a parallel website for PDAs using WML instead of XHTML and CSS. This is the only way of insuring complete compatibility.

For some compatibility we can use the following basic rules of thumb, however, even these rules make implementation of the "bells and whistles" impossible.

There are four basic rules to create a good site for a palm sized device:

1. Stick to basic HTML tags such as: p, br, b, i, pre, headers (h1-6), blockquote, center, ul, ol, li, images, tables
2. Avoid frames, layers, imagemaps, plugins, Javascript, Java, and CSS
3. Keep your screens small, and avoid clutter
4. Be aware of how graphics are displayed

INFO: Website Evaluation Sources from INCOLSA

At our meeting with Linda on Tuesday last week, she supplied to us a list of website evaluation sources that were compiled by INCOLSA. If you are a subscriber to INCOLSA-L, you have likely already seen these. Keith and I were online later last night, and the process of evaluation came up. I thought I would pass these along for the record even though I have not yet visited each site.

http://www.google.com/newsletter/librarian/librarian_2006_01/article2.html - contains a short article on how to evaluate websites.

http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/pdf/weval.pdf

http://library.sonoma.edu/research/subject/eval.html

http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/
backissues1998/julyaugust6/teachingundergrads.html

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLIb/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLIb/Guides/Internet/EvalForm.pdf
--The one from Berkeley is nice because it indicates what to look for and you can write in what you find.

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webeval.html

http://www.vinu.edu/AcademicResources/ShakeLibrary/guides.aspx and click on Evaluating Web Resources: Library Resource Guide, which is a .pdf file


The Indiana University - Kokomo campus library has a list of sites and a handout on our website under Library Instruction | Class Assignments | English W132: Elementary Composition II. If any of these are useful, help yourself:
Guide to web Evaluation (PDF)
Web Evaluation Sites (PDF)

http://www.infopeople.org/resources/bkmk/select.html

http://www.multcolib.org/homework/webeval.html

http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-49.html

http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html

http://www.loibrary.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/webinfo/index.html
--you could contact Vicki Mills or Leslie Sult for permission to use.

http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bopnes/lesson5.shtml

I hope I've transcribed those appropriately. If not, let me know and I'll review the print.

Mandy

MINUTES: 2/12/06 Online Meeting

Discussion of population served by the NPL – Mandy researched ALA and has posted a spreadsheet to the blog of similar size (demographics) of regional libraries - possible peers to NPL

Still concern regarding expectations / scope of project – add-ons and their ability to look a part of the color scheme and design of the site we create

Sharing of contact phone numbers in case online chat isn’t possible or something goes wrong

Discussion of “scope” and how it will be defined

• General feeling is working up our documents due for Tuesday will help each of us narrow the focus of the project
• ACTION - Agreement that we will create a functional site first that includes the content already on their website
• Concern over whether existing third-party software created components will integrate with our site design
• Options of “link in” or total inclusion with our site
• ACTION – work on consistent feel throughout the site
• ACTION – Ben’s uploaded a sample page addressing the design
• Mike will continue to work out issues over CSS
• Discussion of look of sample page components
• Breadcrumbs & placeholders
• Discussion of photos – what kind should be included and when should those pics be secured

ACTION – Mandy will work on combining the spreadsheets / documents of Ben, Mike, and herself for meeting Thursday

• She will ask for feedback late Monday – early Tuesday from team members on her assembled file

INFO: NPL Website Analysis

I took a few minutes so we can start to identify in a tangible way the scope of our project. Please find a PDF file here which will show you by color groupings the location of different files that are currently on or linked to the NPL website. We will need to speak with the director to clarify the things we can and cannot effect a change on. From our conversation online tonight, I recognize that we have the ability and defined scope to suggest changes for add-on products that the library may have, but not necessarily to change their interfaces ourselves.

If you have thoughts or comments, feel free to share. This will be a big part of the discussion at our 4:30 meeting on Thursday.

Mandy

INFO: ALD Selected Peers to NPL

I used the American Library Directory to select a list of peers by population served and by ILS. I've put those into a spreadsheet, which you'll find available here.

1. I am not sure whether *any* of these are considered peer by NPL.
2. I have not yet reviewed the websites for any of these
3. Do we want to take the time to divide an conquer these sites to learn if they have any design / features that we could use for the NPL redesign?

Mandy

AGENDA: 02/12/2006 - Online Meeting

Agenda
Keith, Mandy, Mike, Ben
Online meeting via MSN Chat

1. Follow up thoughts / comments to Thursday's chat.
2. Outline for Tuesday's assignment
1. not yet synthesized
2. preferred format
3. attribution for ideas?
4. Anything unclear in the items you've reviewed?
3. Remaining items tabled for Thursday's meeting:
4. Reports?
5. Planning for Thursday's meeting
1. set milestones
2. updates on action items
   
6. Requirements for meeting minutes
1. Do I understand correctly that we're supposed to email MAB our meeting minutes after each meeting? I can copy those from the blog and mail them to her if that is what you all understand to be true from
   
2. Do we need to be posting to the Oncourse bulletin board sites?
7. NPL Peer site review. See blog entry entitled INFO: ALD Selected Peers to NPL
1. Bring thoughts and ideas
2. Can we divide and conquer on these?
   
8. Other thoughts? Please add. Sorry these are so late.
   

MINUTES: 02/07/2006 Online meeting

Please post comments and feedback, or edit minutes as needed. These were pulled from our chat transcripts on Thursday night:

Discussion of Concerns as fallout from NPL initial meeting

• Amount of work expected to be implemented between now and the end of the semester. We can break the implementation into first tier, second tier, etc. needs to address this. NPL is aware of our time constraints and we should be able to address this by keeping in communication with the site.
• Discussion of concerns of the ‘do-ability’ of the add-ons that NPL currently has and will acquire near term:
• OPAC
• E-vanced solutions calendar system, support@e-vancedsolutions.com
• Online fee payment: overdues, continuing ed registrations, course seminars, travel opportunities, etc.
• Concerns were expressed about the inability of Earthlink to support scripting. This will affect the testing of our software as some scripts will be required to perform the functionality that NPL seeks.
• ACTION: We agreed to investigate what services NPL and IUPUI could offer for a test environment. Ben will check with IUPUI first, then we will check for server space with NPL if IUPUI is unable to provide us with group space.
• Working with graphic designer at NPL may be challenging. Will need to determine what they will need from us to support addition of graphics to their site.
• General approach to design agreed upon:
• Ben and Mike will layout the initial design and apply cascading style sheets to work with multiple browser platforms
• Placeholders for graphics will be used until graphics that are suitable can be obtained
• Content will be supplied
• First pass, from current website
• Second pass, through collaboration with staff at site
• Design will support future software / resource add-ons
• It should be easy to add a new link

Keith initiated a task list outline off the cuff during the meeting; fleshed out from group feedback and comments

1. Interview client
2. Secure workspace
3. Finalize list of vendor add-ins
4. Investigate list of vendor add-ins
5. Design site / navigation
1. Design initial mock-up
2. Generate CSS from mock-up
3. Create template
4. Add content to template
5. Document template editing procedures

i. Inline

ii. Standalone

6. Add static pages
7. Build graphics and pages
8. Refine static pages and content
9. Fine tuning
10. Feedback from site
11. Fine tuning
12. Approval from site
5. Acquire graphics for site
1. Specify dimensions to meet needs on site
2. Approval from site
6. Identify parts of site that will need to be dynamically generated
1. Are those controlled by the add-in software, i.e., can the calendar supply event information as an include or part of a script?

Things to do before Sunday meeting

1. PDA Content / Browser Syndication
1. ACTION: Mike will investigate this with contacts he has available to him
2. Initial Content Template Draft:
1. ACTION: Ben will hash out the initial draft of a template
3. Agreement to meet one hour prior to next class meeting to go over some things in person; notes will be taken for anyone who can’t make the meeting
4. Post a draft of the task list to each other prior to Sunday 7pm meeting
5. Arrangements to use a non OnCourse chat relay system

CHAT: MSN meeting tonight

We'd like to get together for a brief chat Sunday night at 7:00 pm to discuss progress and the assignment due Tuesday. See you online.

AGENDA: Call for Items for tonight's chat meeting

This is a call for agenda items for tonight's 6:30 meeting via OnCourse Chat. Please add or revise the entry below as needed. An agenda should help us to stay on target and to have some control over the meeting. If you remove something from the agenda, please note it in a section at the bottom of the page.
--mandy

1. Review of items that we received as NPL needs; thoughts, concerns
2. Review of spreadsheet tasks. What needs to be added? Rearranged?
3. Application of timeline to the tasks. Can we meet the general timeline we discussed previously:

• Our preliminary class report is due February 14.
  
• We have a March 2nd deadline for our first report.
  
• We estimate the halfway point to fall between March 9 and March 23.
  
• Our final project is due April 25
• The presentation we will do for class is April 27.

4. Planning next tasks and their due dates.

NPL: Discussion points and questions for Meeting

Team,

Can you provide some feedback on these questions for tomorrow morning. Thank you.

Mandy

1. Can you talk about what things you do and do not like about the present NPL website?

2. What websites do you consider to be appropriate peers for NPL?

3. Can you provide the specs for the current web server hardware and web editing software?

4. Are there specific features you would like to add? Will you or your staff supply content for the pages or is that something you would like our team to provide?

5. Does the present website cover all the services that the library offers?

6. Do you have any digital photographs of the library that you would like incorporated into the website?

7. Can you provide the permission we'll need to use your library logo?

9. Our timeline for getting the work done to you.

10. How would you like to keep us apprised of the progress on the website development? Are you comfortable with accessing the blog, or would you like our team to provide periodic updates? If so, how often? Just at our project milestones?

11. Our preliminary class report is due February 14. Beyond that, we have a March 2nd deadline for our

first report. We estimate the halfway point to fall between March 9 and March 23. Our final project is due April 25, and the presentation we will do for class is April 27.

12. We would like to do periodic feedback and usability testing. Would you like for you and your staff or patrons to be considered for this feedback?

LOG: NPL Initial meeting date and time set

On Friday, February 3, I sent an introductory note to Linda Yoder, director of the Nappanee Public Library. The email included two dates that we could meet and offered that she could suggest an alternate date if neither time worked for her. Ms. Yoder selected the Tuesday, February 7 9:00am meeting. Keith Kuric and I will travel to NPL to meet on site with Ms. Yoder to conduct a preliminary needs assessment.

We are currently developing a list of questions to use as discussion points with Ms. Yoder.

INFORMATION: Project URL

I have set up the server space for the website redesign. It has also been added to our list of important links in the right hand column of the blog.

An email has been sent to everyone with the password for this site. Let me know if you need this to be sent again for any reason.

QUERY: Meeting Procedures and blog guidelines

Do we need to discuss meeting procedures? This was one of the PM suggestions that MAB made last night. We need to talk about having agendas and minutes (which Keith graciously agreed to take and post last night), but I think we also should talk about how / where we plan to publish the minutes. Do we plan to publish minutes here in the blog? Do we need to standarize the subject headings so that all minutes have a subject heading of Minutes: MM/DD/YYYY and AGENDA: MM/DD/YYYY so they can be easily identified? Do we want to have correspondence with our site sponsor posted here in the blog? I've found that tagging subject headings in my email helps me. By tagging, I mean using a subject at the beginning of the line along with a descriptive text to summarize contents. Does this make sense or am I being a bit too fussy?

Mandy

My Brainstorm

Here are links to my brainstorming documents. On the excel sheet all I changed was the task column.

http://portfolio.iu.edu/bwaymout/Flow_of_Project.doc

http://portfolio.iu.edu/bwaymout/Project_plan_Nappanee__7.xls

Muench Spiral PDF

This is a great graphical representation of the Muench Spiral that Dr. Ball referenced during class tonight: http://www.nathanfisher.com/RP/Muench.pdf