Web Advisory Group
Minutes 7/11/2001
Present: Duke, Hartman, Hennig, Jones (minutes), Manoff
1. Tasks for the future: overview of what we'll be working on next
Nicole reported on the results of meetings she has had with Ginny Steel and Nina Davis-Millis. She will be joining PSMG as a permanent member. On the agenda for the PSMG meeting of July 12 is how to coordinate web work in the Libraries, and how to offer support to those who provide content but who are not necessarily familiar with HTML or Dreamweaver. For example, it may not be efficient to have a group of 53 web authors as we do currently: instead, we could expand the web contacts group to somewhere between 18 and 25 people.
2. Update on training
Nicole is conducting training on July 12 and July 19 for the web contacts plus a few web authors responsible for top-level pages. Later in the summer, there will be training for the branch libraries and for the people who maintain subject pages. Nicole will also be offering again her popular training on writing for the web, which will also incorporate a reduced component on stylistic guidelines.
For others who require web training, a train-the-trainers model has been set up: Nicole will train a core group who will then train people in their respective units.
The group then talked about Nicole's role not only in training but also in other library-wide activities which require web expertise. We need to spread that expertise more widely so that others in the Web Group and beyond could be called upon to participate in individual projects.
3. Membership rotation
The group agreed that there should be turnaround in the membership, but that it should be kept to a minimum so as to preserve some continuity and consistency of knowledge and experience. The role of the Web Group as a whole may also change: it could become more of a usability team, advising and even sometimes participating on testing of web pages and projects. The group also agreed that its size should be kept small: it should be large enough to be representative, but small enough to make decisions and get things done.
4. Request from Science Library to re-order the categories on their homepage
The Science Library has requested that the "Borrowing + Ordering" category on its homepage be the second link, right after "Search Our Collections." After some discussion (see item 5 below) Web Group members agreed that the order of the categories is not as important as consistency in wording, and that Science can make this change.
5. How much consistency to recommend for each library's homepage
Following on the discussion of the request from Science, we agreed on the following general guidelines:
- the top part of all the main pages (photo, contact numbers, etc.) should not be changed for at least a year
- changes in the order of categories is permitted, but there should be consistency in wording
- individual libraries may add extra categories or links on their home page as needed