Maintenance is so booooooooooring - A.L.Duda's note

[vcarrington at ala-choice.org]

     Slightly off the Web Maintenance topic, but related to A.L.Duda's 
     comment about sources of info on Web sites:
     CHOICE magazine just published a special supplement reviewing some 200
     research-related Web sites. A free copy went to each current CHOICE 
     subscriber, so many of you academic/research librarians may have a 
     copy inhouse and circulating. Go check your Serials Department, or the 
     desk drawer of the first person on the routing list (it's been a while 
     since I worked at an academic library, but I bet some things haven't 
     changed!)
     
     Vee Friesner Carrington
     CHOICE:Current Reviews for Academic Libraries
     ACRL/ALA
     100 Riverview Center
     Middletown, CT 06457-3445
     PH: 860-347-6933 x29
     Fax: 860-346-8586
     E-mail: vcarrington at ala-choice.org
     
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Maintenance is so booooooooooring
Author:  <duda at ariz.library.ucsb.edu> at INTERNET
Date:    8/14/97 3:01 PM


People have suggested several ideas regarding the maintenance of web 
pages:
     
   - pages should include the name of the person responsible for the page 
   - use tools like MOMSpider or CyberSpyder to generate lists of broken 
     links
   - use library assistants or student assistants to mark up pages 
   - use resources like the Scout Report to learn about new sources
     
We're already doing these things.  For example, we run CyberSpyder monthly 
to look for bad links.  (The newest version of it is quite nice!) I send 
the reports off to the people responsible for those pages.  In most cases, 
people check the links and update their pages.  But there are a few people 
who say they don't have time to look at the reports and do anything with 
them.  What do you do then? 
     
With the subject pages, generally librarians are making the decisions 
about which links to add.  In many cases they turn this information over 
to a library assistant or student who does the actual HTML markup. 
     
Resources like the Scout Report are great for learning about new sources. 
A resource that I find invaluable is Gleason Sackman's Network Newsletters 
mailing list.  (Subscribe by sending the message "subscribe newsltr" to 
listserv at listserv.nodak.edu.) You'll receive a dozen or more different 
newsletters automatically -- things like the Scout Report, Edupage, NBN 
Editor's Choice Awards, etc. 
     
I guess maybe there isn't a good answer to my question.  I send reports 
about broken links.  I send notices about new resources that people may 
want to check out.  Librarians can get help from LAs and students to mark 
up their pages.  But in some cases, the pages are still basically 
abandoned by the people who created them. 
     
          ===========================================================
                                Andrea L. Duda             
                    Networked Information Access Coordinator
           Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara 
                         E-mail: duda at library.ucsb.edu
                     InfoSurf: http://www.library.ucsb.edu
          ===========================================================