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Transcript of Portals, Libraries, and Avoiding the Trash Bin Computers in Libraries 2005 Missy Harvey Carnegie...
Portals, Libraries, and Avoiding the Trash Bin
Computers in Libraries 2005Missy HarveyCarnegie Mellon [email protected] 2005
Portal Development atCarnegie Mellon University
Started Efforts in Fall 2001 Released Portal Fall 2003 Libraries Have Been a Major Part Enabling Libraries to Become a More
Prominent and Thriving Resource Delivering Content Around the World Mistakes and Lessons Learned Libraries Involvement Along the Way
What is a Portal?A portal is:
a dynamic customizable Web service that offers content and applications to users based on their relationship with an institution
A portal provides:
consistent navigation as well as a consistent interface
Relationships
Portal Content TargetsGroups of Users = (Relationship)
Users May Be:
Department Heads Staff in History Graduate Students in Physics Student Members of a Student Organization
PortletsPortal Content is Delivered in Portlets / Channels
Portlets Can Be:
E-mail Calendars Headlines Surveys or Forms RSS or XML Feeds Results of JDBC Queries Links to Existing Web Pages
Portal vs. Web Site
Web Site Information is Static
Every User Sees the Same Thing
Portal Information is Dynamic
Determined by Who They Are What Groups They Belong To
Carnegie Mellon Composition Core population is about 13,470 people:
5389 Undergraduates 4274 Graduate Students 1300 Faculty 2500 Full-Time Staff 70,000+ Alumni Prospective Students Research Partners
Distance Education
16 Distance Education Programs
Remote Campuses Remote Sites with In-Person and Online Courses Collaborative Programs with Other Institutions Executive Education Programs
Impact on University LibrariesAdequate and Timely Services
Delivering Books to Faculty/Students in Remote Places
Expanding our Interlibrary Loan Procedures
Providing Database Services to Users Using a VPN or a Unique IP Address
Technical Issues Authentication / Single Sign-On
WebISO / Pubcookie Kerberos 5 Shibboleth
Scalability Unique E-Mail System
Use Existing Mail Programs Mirrored Bboards
Event Calendar Content Management System (CMS)
Event Calendar
Are Portals Really Becoming Necessary?
On Our Existing Campus Web Site We Found:
Information was Hard to Find People Used Bookmarks Potential Security Problems Abounded Lots of Redundant Web Work Underway
Across Campus Uncoordinated Institutional Image
Green, K. C. 2004 National Survey of Information Technology in U.S. Higher Education.
Why Should Libraries Care? Disruptive Changes Being Driven By:
Cellphones Entertainment Devices Consumers of Content Whose Interests and Tastes are
Supported by the Technology
Pay Attention to How Content Is: Created Found, and Used by the Self-Sufficient but also Demanding and
Discerning Information Consumer and Producer
Why Should Libraries Care? Coordinated Management of Digital Assets
of Institutions Data Sets e-Prints Theses and Dissertations Videos of lectures More….
Content Behaviors Have Changed
Potential to Increase Campus Presence
Resulting Vision
A Unified “Digital Dashboard” of Campus Services
Content Personalized To and Customized By Users
An Information Management Platform for the Web
An Infrastructure for University Information Management in General
Challenges Faced / Mistakes Made Stakeholders
Problems getting all stakeholders on campus to become involved with the project from the start
Important to involve as many as possible in portal planning and implementation
Need to encourage the need to adhere to principles and tools that allow for all units to leverage unifying technologies
Challenges Faced / Mistakes Made Interviewed Remote Campuses/Sites
Should have interviewed more remote campuses and sites to learn what worked and did not work for them
We brought them in later rather than earlier
Challenges Faced / Mistakes Made Timing
Timing is can be crucial to success
One of our colleges on campus had already developed a portal to be used by their own people
Challenges Faced / Mistakes Made Publishing Challenges
At the moment, most publishing of portlets has to be handled by Computing Services
This made sense initially but is causing other campus projects to be delayed
This problem is being addressed as we speak
Lessons Learned
President/Provost Involvement
Seek assistance from them, as well as all deans, to require involvement in such a major undertaking
Entire campus needs to understand the significance
Lessons Learned
Well-Defined Committee Structure
Set-up a well defined committee structure to oversee the portal development
Allow the committee structure to evolve as tasks are accomplished and the focus of activities change
Lessons Learned
Good Communication
Maintain good communication lines with the entire campus about developments with the portal
One tool we use is a Web site showing tools, presentations, training, etc.
http://www.cmu.edu/webforum/
Lessons Learned
Invest Substantial Time Choosing Portal Software
Decide what components of the package you need to buy from the vendor and what parts you can modify or develop from scratch with your own programming staff
We chose EpiCentric / Vignette
Lessons Learned
Collaborative Tools
Find easy and helpful collaborative tools to share communication within and between committees
We use a Wiki to share documents amongst our various subcommittees
Twiki site: http://twiki.org/
Lessons Learned
Design from a Customer Perspective
Simple to use
Dependable and predictable
Demonstrate value (or deliver results)
Make the user more self-reliant
Lessons Learned
Culture Change Will Be Needed
Users may need to be encourage dept. by dept. to see the potential
For those who’ve been at an institution longer, previous methods of communication and finding information are entrenched
The major trends—and challenges—are social and are profoundly changing how content is created, collected, used, shared and preserved
Lessons Learned
Capability to Gradually Change
The portal should change as the status and the activity in it changes
Successful portals are bi-directional, enabling users to make real-time transactions, such as finding timely information, using changeable scheduling, or using financial services
Lessons Learned
Strong Relationship Between the Library and Computing Services
Key to success
Allows for a strong library presence in portal development
Leads to improved visibility for the libraries
Opens the door for other new initiatives in the future
Present State (since Aug. 2004)
%age of population using Portal
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Faculty Staff Masters Doctoral
AY 2005
2005
Usage by Student Group
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior 5th YearSenior
AY 2005
2005
What’s Ahead for the Near Future? WebForum
http://www.cmu.edu/webforum/
Comprised of various subcommittees, each assigned with various tasks
The WebForum itself meets once per semester with all webmasters / stakeholders
Leadership Committee
Coordinate the meetings and communications of the Web Forum
Carry out the recommendations of the Forum
Suggest broad goals and priorities for the Web Forum
Create and manage subcommittees
Make tactical decisions in support of strategic goals set forth in the Forum
Content Management
http://www.cmu.edu/webforum/content-management/
Improve the timeliness of information
Improve the accuracy of information
Help make information easier to find
Help make Web sites and other information processes work more efficiently
Infrastructure
http://www.cmu.edu/webforum/infrastructure/
Focus on the evolution of the University's Web development toolkit and backend systems
Marketing
http://www.cmu.edu/webforum/marketing/
How do we communicate with our users?
What is the purpose of that communication?
How do we measure our effect?
How can we improve the user's experience without compromising necessary individuality?
What information do we want to gather from our collective Web services to better inform our efforts?
Portal
http://www.cmu.edu/webforum/portal/
What is our vision and strategy?
Tactical details of development efforts
Continue past work in usability
Identify applications to add
Look at targeting
Address interface design
Search
http://www.cmu.edu/webforum/search/
Determine whether we should develop and deploy an improved search system
If so, recommend a solution
Standards and Practices
http://www.cmu.edu/webforum/standards-practices/
How do Web professionals make best use of the university’s development toolkit?
Deal with Web testing for usability and accessibility
Library Involvement is Key
We have at least one library staff member on every subcommittee, as well as the overall Leadership Committee
We seek to collaborate on initiatives that are of interest to the libraries
We step up to volunteer for beta testing of applications of use in the libraries
We promote the portal from our library Web site and in library instruction
Summary
We have a lot of work we’ve completed
Much more work ahead to continue to ensure the success of our campus portal development
Learning from our mistakes and our lessons, you can make productive and informed decisions for your own institution
You don’t want to invest and work hard at implementing a portal and then find it in the trash bin because it does not meet your needs
Further Reading
Bell, Steven J. (2004, January). Promotion through “teachnology.” Library Journal netConnect. Available at http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA371208.
Green, Kenneth C. (2004, October). 2004 National Survey of Information Technology in U.S. Higher Education. Available at http://www.campuscomputing.net/summaries/2004/.
Harvey, Melissa J. (2004, March). Opening doors: Libraries and portals. Computer in Libraries Conference. Available at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~missy/Portals/index.ppt.
Ipri, Tom & Sell, James H. (2005, Feb.). Opening the portal to better relationships. Computers in Libraries, 25(2).
Lakos, Amos A. (2004, Oct./Nov.). Portals in libraries: Portal vision. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 31(1). Available at http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Oct-04/lakos2.html.
OCLC. (2004, Sept.). 2004 Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers. Available at http://www5.oclc.org/downloads/community/2004infotrends_content.pdf.
OCLC. (2002, June). How academic librarians can influence students’ Web-based information choices. OCLC White Paper on the Information Habits of College Students. Available at http://www2.oclc.org/oclc/pdf/printondemand/informationhabits.pdf.
Sennema, Greg. (2004, Jan.). Creating an internal content management system. Computers in Libraries, 24(1). Available at http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jan04/sennema.shtml.