Web Management

[Robert H. Terry]

Hi,

Well, about once every month or so, I genuflect at the Librarian 
professionals on this list, and offer the Software Engineer answer to 
such requests.

When starting a site, it is easy enough to teach others basic HTML/CGI 
coding.  Most initial starts get lots of bang and quick acknowledgement 
from their users.  The long haul though is quite different, without 
standards and automated tools, maintenance becomes a nightmare.  

The partial solution to your question is to investigate thoroughly tools 
available for these activities.  There are site URL checkers available in 
the public domain (i.e. Mom Spider, Lycos, etc.),  there is a trend in 
Word Processors for a "Save-As HTML" option (providing a standard format 
for pages), and theres database HTML code generating cataloguing tools.

Our NASA sponsered public domain library employs/develops all of these as 
the solution space for our WWW based reference site.  Well, good luck, 
and my advice is to plan on having computer programs do the work, 
instead of people.

Bob Terry
http://rbse.mountain.net/MOREplus/ 

On Fri, 19 Jan 1996, Suzanne Wilson wrote:

> We are a small university with approximately 1900 students and are =
> presently in the process of developing a university wide WWW site.  An =
> outside source is going to help us with the initial phase of designing =
> and getting our Web site active.  We are trying to determine how much =
> time and resources it will take after the site is up to keep it current =
> and functional.  I'd appreciate input from anyone who has already gone =
> through this process.
> 
> 	Did the university have to hire more staff?
> 
> 	What department/s took over responsibility for the web site?
> 
> 	Was the work incorporated into existing staff?
> 
> 	How demanding are the day to day responsibilities of keeping the site =
> current?
> 
>  	Do all the changes flow through one central location or are the =
> departments responsible for=20
> 	their own areas?
> 
> I'd appreciate any other information that you might find helpful. =20
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Sue Wilson
> swilson at titan.iwu.edu
> Info. Sys. Coordinator
> Sheean Library
> Illinois Wesleyan University
> 
> 
>