A little about the interview

I contacted a few libraries for this assignment this week. One of them was at a public library and exceptionally busy, but told me they could discuss things next week. Another public librarian was also rather busy. I decided to get in contact with the director of Reinhardt University library where I volunteered last semester. I was not really sure what CMS they used or if the director knew much about it since he is relatively new to the position.

I would have preferred to go down there, but they are on summer hours and close early (I volunteered after work once or twice a week). It really only has been about three weeks since I was there last. I decided that email would be best, and the easiest way to keep a transcript of the interview. Below is the interview with Joel Langford, Library Director of Reinhardt University. Their content management system is called Cascade. You can take a look at the Reinhardt UniversityLibrary website.

The overall impression I get from the director and seeing how their web page works when I volunteered there is that the system is fairly easy to use. The overall look of the library site was designed by the University to match the rest of the University webpage. Regular up keep is comparable to posting new articles on Joomla! or new blog posts on Wordpress. There are feeds for the Library Twitter and Blog on the side of the library home page. The blog is kept up by one of the staff, and Twitter by one of the librarians. The Twitter account was used by the library to let students know that the library was not closed after it had flooded after Snowpocalypse.

Mr. Langford mentioned that they had recently added a How To page for Ancestry.com on their web page. I knew that they used Ancestry.com as a resource and had been promoting that in the fall semester. The Reference Service Librarian had created the page, and she found it easy. The video was created by students, giving them some experience in web creation (J. Langford, personal communication, May 29, 2014).

Interview Transcript

The following is a transcript of emails between me and Joel Langford, the Director of Library Services at the Hill Freeman Library & Spruill Learning Center of Reinhardt University. I volunteered at the Reinhardt University Library this past semester and worked closely with the Director and other librarians, hence the more casual nature of the interview.

Transcript (with salutations removed):

Interviewer: Hope the summer is going well. Our trip to Switzerland was fun, I'll stop by and bring some chocolates some time. Right now I am in my third week of Maymester, not too fun with a full time job. Oh, and my capstone. I was wondering who managed the library website. I know Jaime runs the blog, but was unsure who kept up with the Webpage and what content management system you use. 

Director: Good to hear from you. Glad your trip was fun. It is pretty quiet around here. Three or four students drift in and out each day but that's about it. Primarily I manage the webpage.  Melissa and Amy (the reference service and catalog librarians) both have authorization to make changes but I am the one who does the normal upkeep. Certainly the university web master, John Pettibone, has access as well, but he does not make any changes without consulting me first. We did a complete redesign of the website in Summer/Fall 2012 and as well as the folks above the university Marketing Department was very much involved in that process so that the library's page would match the rest of the university's webpage in looks.  We use Cascade Content Management System.

Interviewer: I have a paper to write about CMS; would you mind if I asked you a few questions regarding your experience with Cascade? Part of the assignment is to post the interview emails on our blog for the class, would you give permission for that, with or without your name and Reinhardt’s? Mostly the questions will be about your experiences. 

Director: That would be fine. My knowledge about Cascade is very limited but I will answer as best as I can.  I don't mind names being posted.

Interviewer: So did you have any input into the choosing of Cascade for library use? And what was used before the revamp?

Director: No, I did not have a choice regarding Cascade. It was the CMS that the university was using and the web master wanted the library to be in line with everyone else. Prior to the webpage revamp, the library used Front Page. I did not work directly with upkeep on that webpage as we began the revamp soon after I officially became Director. However, it was my understanding that it was very difficult to use in context of our website.

Interviewer: How has the learning curve of Cascade been for you and your staff?

 Have you noticed any benefits from using this system?

Director: The learning curve was quite easy. Melissa, Amy and I had one session with the web master as well as a handout to follow and went from there with no problems. The initial setup for the revamped web site was done by the web master and library staff have done updates. Cascade is very easy to use. Making updates on library hours and holidays and similar regularly changing updates are quickly completed. Linking between pages on the web site and hyperlinking features are beneficial and easy to do. Once a change is made and approved by me, it is immediately changed on the public webpage which is good.

Interviewer: What are some of the other updates that you have made to the website?
Have there been any major updates since it started?

Director: There have been no major updates to the site since it went live in December 2012, but one additional page has been added. That is the Ancestry.com page which has a link from a box on the bottom of the home page and is also under the Research page. Students in a class created the video showing how to use Ancestry.com and Melissa created the page for the web site. Other significant changes have been the addition of new images in some of the banners, updates to the electronic resources list including descriptions of each database, and a new program for the Journals tab. We switched from Serials Solutions to EBSCO A to Z for our serial list management when GALILEO began providing EBSCO A to Z as part of its service in Fall 2013. However, most of the work in the switch was done outside of Cascade and the webpage.  A change in the link for the Journals tab was the only task in this process as far as Cascade was concerned.

Interviewer: Thanks Joel. I may have some more questions later, but this is good for me to get started. Plus I have a project at work I am working on now. Have a great evening.

Real World Application for Arduino

I noticed one of our discussion post the Arduino module for makerspaces is mentioned. So here is the adventure thus far I have had with Arduino:

Our company makes conveyor belt machines that move/print/pack/label products. Each machine has a different function, length, and speed. The speed can be adjusted at each machine, but occasionally a customer wants to control the speed of all machines with only one machine. We have managed to get away with this by fine tuning all the machines, locking them in place, and routing speed through the one master machine (read "you just have to have the right touch"). This set up is real easy to mess up. Turn one knob on a follower machine and the speed is out of alignment. Big headache.

Recently we have discussed about and ordered an Arduino for prototyping. The thought is that this will allow us to run each machine at a constant speed with respect to the other without complicated circuitry as the Arduinos will communicate and adjust speeds to match. Looking through the catalog, we looked at their add-on (they call shields) and discussed what sort of connections and ideally the functionality of the end result. We could go pretty far, but the cost and our standard of machine integration may limit us to this one application. We will continue to develop the idea over the next month, and work with the programmers to come up with a usable prototype.

Well, Joomla! has certainly been interesting. I watched the video first, but without having Joomla! open, it was a bit hard to follow. Last night I set my self up with coffee a second monitor and followed along with the tutorial.

After I got into it, it was really easy. I even had some time to whip up a banner and logo while I was watching it. They are not the best, but I would imagine that a lot of libraries already has images on hand they would use for banners and logos.

Site now disabled.

I like the way the site can be built without a lot of mess that is not needed. It takes a bit of learning to figure out the difference between modules and extensions, but with regular use I imagine most users would become very familiar with Joomla!

I am very impressed with Joomla! My first use of website making software was Dreamweaver. It was a glitch filled WYSIWYG graphic editor. Very odd, and functionality could not really be added. Joomla! allows for a clean design up front, and added functionality if the user wants to add it. Having different modules is a strength, allowing the user to change a part of the whole, or constantly adding news or updates without changing anything else. I can see the appeal to libraries for use of Joomla! for a content management system.

Seems like there is a lot of functionality but rather complicated. Adding extensions and having to add editors to edit. It seems that Joomla is for folks who have done a lot of web page stuff before. I am sure all the different options will make every Joomla site different rather than how (many, but not all) Wordpress sites look similar. 

The filters look interesting. That can have great uses for libraries. So I am about an hour into it and want to follow along, but I have yet to get an email for me to login. Sounds fairly easy but time consuming. Great for customization. Found the email filled under junk mail.

Joomla!

I am about to dive into the world of Joomla!. I had never heard of this until this class, so it will be an interesting exercise. That 2 hour video hopefully will be good...

I will keep you updated with my progress.

My library is library at a private university of about 1,400 students. The library serves mostly undergraduate (students about 87%), but also serves a small number of graduate students and community members. The library is increasingly serving distance learning student online (about 9%) and wishes to create a wiki. The budget for the library is $350,000 for the year, but "Free would be great!" according to the director.

The wiki's goal is to be a record of the historic campus, including, but not limited to: historic and current buildings, people of historic note, future plans, catalog of plants on the campus grounds, and a record of campus events, both historic and recurring.

The List the Library is looking for includes:

A wiki that is free to create and free of subscription
Unlimited storage
Something easy to use
Filters for language and inappropriate content
Keeps records of usage
Able to have pictures
Perhaps interactive maps

Using WikiMatix I found a list that met these requirements: Okay. You want a hosted offer with WYSIWYG editing and a page history. And searched through that list for ones that fit the requirements already laid out. Plus some wiki sites failed to open as I narrowed down to less than ten.

I narrowed it down to GeniusWiki, Wagn, and Wikia. I am more familiar with Wikia, plus its target audience and restrictions is more in line with the needs of the university. So Wikia it is then.

I have had a bit of experience with creating and maintaining websites. I have kept up a website mainly by using XML with some Java elements, and have used HTML and CSS a bit. Here is one I did for another class: Library on the Internet. It was fun to do, but hard to keep up with after the class was over.

For my first blog post, I would like to comment on my hopes for this class. My experience with the technical side of computers and the internet is quite good, but I lack an understanding of the social aspect of "Social Media." In this class I hope to actively engage and sincerely connect with people with social media, particularly on twitter. I know that twitter offers a niche community, and i have already observed this in the library world. I have not learned how to successfully build relationships with people who I do not know on twitter. I know that this is a benefit in social media and I hope to explore it more in this course.

I am old school, connecting with people online is odd for me. I get overwhelmed with all the notifications I get online from twitter LinkedIn and Facebook. Facebook is a tool so I don't have to keep up with everybody's email address. I know that social media is important to libraries and its also beneficial for networking with other librarians. I also know that blogging can be really influential, but I have yet to figure out how to effectively blog. I am hoping this class will help me develop good social media and blogging habits.