Web Advisory Group Home > Minutes > 6 October 2004
Minutes - 6 October 2004Present: Duke, Gaskell (minutes), Hennig, and Skuce
1. Home page
Darcy has almost completed the staff photo stripe and it should be ready for next week. The group discussed new ideas for the stripe on the home page.
Nicole announced the font size on the home page has been changed and appears slightly in different in the different browsers. This will make it more readable for IE/Windows users who keep their default view size set to "smaller."
2. RSS
Nicole informed the group about a information session she attended on RSS. The group looked at examples of how other libraries are using RSS for new book lists, patron check-out lists, and news stories. Discussion of possible applications for the Libraries followed. Nicole will start experimenting as time permits.
3. Site issues
Some the library news pages are out of date on the site. These libraries will be contacted to see how they wish to handle updates.
The group discussed standardizing the header throughout the site so that the link to the libraries home page and links to other key areas of the site (Barton, Vera) would appear in consistent locations. Most pages do not use an SSI template for the header so this project would be very large. The group decided to start by creating header templates for pages that are being redesigned. The new template for the subject pages may be the first trial.
4. New pages
Nicole is working on a form for physical reserves. She showed the group the form in-progress. Millicent mentioned she will be meeting with representatives from circulation about the form tomorrow and will provide additional information to Nicole.
Kate McNeill-Harman will be updating the Data Services web pages so Nicole is working on a new template and style sheet to support these changes.
5. New books
The grouped discussed how to best maintain new book lists on the web. While no decision was reached the following questions will be discussed at a later meeting:
- If we make a template to be used with BrioQuery, will that suffice for now as the easiest way for librarians to create new book pages?
- Should we also create a system where people can make dynamic links from their web pages (links that contain a search string) into Barton, so that when clicked on the newest books in a particular topic will show on a Barton results page?
- Will RSS feeds for new books be added to Aleph (and/or Metalib) someday as we've seen some other libraries doing? (seems like the best long term solution)
- What is the best solution for the short term and the long term?
6. Other
Nicole reported she's continuing to work on the new templates and testing Micromedia Contribute.
Next meeting:Wednesday, October 20, 2-3:30pm, Barker Conference Room
http://libstaff.mit.edu/webgroup/minutes/20041006.html
Web Advisory Group Home > Minutes > 6 October 2004