Infrastructure. Boston Public Library. How to get more information.

[Don Saklad]

Here's a BPL press release from City of Boston.

It would be very interesting to have a back stage so to
speak behind the scenes tour of Boston Public Library
available via the net.

What happens that people don't usually see that
culminates in the BPL services we do see?...

Ask your cities' public libraries for more information
about infrastructure, more documentation, more diagrams,
et al.



  BPL - Communications Office -- Current Press Releases
  http://www.bpl.org/news/weblaunch.htm

   Boston Public Library
   Press Release
   News and Events

   Mayor Menino Launches BPL's New Web Site
   June 21, 2001
   
   More Than $1 Million Worth of Information is
    Available Online
   
   Mayor Thomas M. Menino and students from the
    Dearborn Middle School today launched the Boston
    Public Library's new 900-page website including
    more than $1 million worth of databases, much of
    which are not available anywhere else.

    To show off the valuable information, the Mayor led
    the students on an online treasure hunt of the
    site.

   
   "There are lots of treasures on this site and its
     new structure will help all of the library's
     customers move through the site easier and find
     answers to their questions quicker,"
     said Mayor Menino.

    "Books are just the beginning at the Boston Public
     Library, and this site is a great example of the
     vast resources that are `free to all.'"

   
   "The new website is full of information and hundreds
     of images of people, programs and events at the
     Boston Public Library,"
     said Jon Sachs, Founder and President of
     CenterMedia [ http://centermedia.com ] the
     Boston-based web firm that designed
     the BPL's new site.

    "Our goal was to take more than 900 pages worth of
     information and turn it into an exciting,
     accessible, attractive, easy-to-navigate site.

     If you go to
     http://www.bpl.org
     you'll see that we have done just that!"
   
 
  "At Mayor Menino's direction, we have more than
    doubled the number of computers available for the
    public to use at our 27 branch libraries across the
    City of Boston,"
    said BPL President Bernard A. Margolis.

   "If you want to access our new site but don't have a
    computer, come into any branch and get
    connected.

    If you don't know how to log on, we offer free
    Internet classes to get people up to speed."
   

   The Boston Public Library launched its first website
    in March of 1995 at the technology edge of public
    libraries on the World Wide Web.

    The redesign project began in September, 2000 with
    a contract award of $60,000 to CenterMedia.

    CenterMedia worked closely with a team of BPL staff
    members to improve customer access to information
    and to enhance the look and customer-friendliness
    of the site.

    By the time the site was ready for launch,
    CenterMedia had completed more than double the
    amount of work originally outlined at no additional
    cost.

   
   "We are grateful to CenterMedia not only for
     designing a site full of colorful navigation bars,
     dramatic photos and very useful maps, but also for
     its generosity by donating more than half of the
     project costs to the library," said Mayor Menino.
   

   With style and clarity, http://www.bpl.org invites
    customers to reserve the hottest bestseller and
    have it delivered to their neighborhood branch,
    practice for MCAS tests with sample questions,
    locate annual reports from hundreds of corporations
    and government agencies,
    trace their genealogy, and
    find their way around using
    maps of the central library as well as the
    branches.
   

   The Dearborn Middle School 6th grade students who
    successfully found their way around the site during
    the treasure hunt were awarded prizes by
    Mayor Menino at the launch event.

    Tweeter Home Entertainment Group
    generously contributed the prizes.
   

   CenterMedia is a Boston web development firm
    offering custom Internet solutions.

    CenterMedia has been in business for 25 years,
    coming from a background in corporate presentation
    and multimedia.
   

   The Boston Public Library, established in 1848, was
    the first public library in America, and
    the first library to allow people to borrow books and
    materials,
    a truly revolutionary concept at the time.

    In 1870, the BPL opened the East Boston branch, the
    first branch library in the country.

    In 1895, it opened a children's room, making it the
    first library in the country to establish a space
    specifically designed for children.

    Today, the BPL has more than 6 million books and
    serves more than 2 million people annually in its
    central library in Copley Square and in its
    27 branch libraries around the city.

    The BPL is also one of only two public libraries in
    the country that are members of the
    Association of Research Libraries.

    All of its events are free and open to the
    public.

    At the Boston Public Library
    books are just the beginning!
   
                         -30-
   
   Prepared by the Boston Public Library's
    Communications Office.

    For more information about news, programs and
    events at the BPL, call
    617.859.2212 or send a message to
    P. A. d'Arbeloff, Communications Officer
    padarbeloff (at sign) bpl.org
http://www.bpl.org/news/weblaunch.htm