[WEB4LIB] managing academic library websites

[kyle.felker at ccmail.nevada.edu]

I'll preface this by saying that my own views do not always jibe with those
of others out in libraryland.

First off, I don't think that it's all that uncommon for a smaller
university to have a centralized server.  In a small environment, it is
possible to centralize the work to this degree, whereas in larger
institutions, it usually (but not always) is not.  there are as many ways
of managing academic library websites as there are academic libraries.
Some, like my own library, have a web manager (me).  Some share campus
resources and people.  Some are done entirely through an automated portal
system shared with the rest of campus.  There is a lot of variety out
there.

Your concern about timeliness of updating is a valid one...have you spoken
to those in charge and expressed these fears?  they may have already been
considered, and mechanisms put in place.  even if there haven't, it can't
be bad to bring the concern forward.

The question of wether librarians are qualified to design and create
websites better than other campus entities is one I won't touch, as I'm
sure several people would have issues with my answer, and really, it's not
important to your situation.  If you want to retain control of your own
pages you will have to make a case that you are the people best qualified
to do the work.  Your first step to doing this is not making an enemy of
the new web manager or upper administration.  I understand all too well the
challenges this person is going to have, especially as centralization has
been recently enforced.  Try to establish a relationship and a dialogue
with this person-even if you fail in getting the pages back under your
control, a positive relationship with this person can only help you.

Everyone and their mother is going to be moaning to the new web manager or
other descision-making entities that they resent loss of control, and that
they are best qualified to do their own pages.  Ask yourselves: how do we
know we have done a good job on the website?  How can we demonstrate that?
Have you done testing and assessment?  Are there survey results or other
numbers you can use to make your case?  what research and methods did you
use to create the site, and did they involve the sites users?  If you don't
have any of this, then you are basing your claim that you do a good job on
nothing more than your own feeling of satisfaction and maybe anecdotal
evidence...that's not going to make a very strong case.

Some of the purposes of a library website are indeed very different from
those of the general academic institution website, which is often viewed as
a recruiting tool.  You need to be precise about what those differences are
and be able to articulate why those differences neccesitate specific
designs.  Presentation of library databases is one of the biggies here, so
you might want to focus on that.  If the site offers specialized services,
such as paying fines or renewing books online, those are also things to
focus on.

Be ready to accept defeat.  The campus has reasons for centralizing, and
they may be good ones.  Do you understand what their position is?  Have you
tried to find out?  There may even be advantages for you as well-better
integration of library resources with campus pages so that they are more
easily found, better indexing so that information is retrieved more
reliably, etc.  Even if you don't host your own pages any more, you might
establish yourselves as a major voice in the steering, planning, and
management of the campus web presence as a whole.  Change is not always
bad, and neither is loss of control.  Make sure you are approaching this
with an open mind and a full understanding of the forces at work.  It may
actually be in your long-term best interests to accept this change.

-Kyle Felker
Web Manager
UNLV Libraries


Please respond to carolyn_jardine at antiochne.edu

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Subject:    [WEB4LIB] managing academic library websites

I am new to this listserv so hope this is an appropriate query...

I am one of the reference librarians on the staff of a small
non-residential graduate school library, and for the past 4 years have
also been the website manager.  Last year we totally overhauled our
website, creating a new one virtually from scratch with Dreamweaver and
hosting the pages on our own server.  We now have over 150 pages and a
fairly significant portion of my job involves updating, maintaining, and
creating these pages.  Our school has recently hired a web services
manager (new position) who has been given the job of managing our website.
 We (library staff) can still "be responsible for content" but we can no
longer host our site on our own server or make edits, changes, etc
ourselves -- everything has to go through the school's web services
manager.  This seems less than practical to me and I am afraid of having
to wait in line with everyone else for changes to our site which often
must be made RIGHT NOW in order to maintain quality service for our
patrons.  My question (finally!) to this list is, what is customary for
academic library websites as far as maintenance and hosting?  Don't most
libraries have their own web services manager, someone on the library
staff who is trained and responsible for making timely edits, updates, and
changes?  Don't library professionals have a better idea of how to manage
their own website?  Other academic department pages and institutional
homepages have a VERY different purpose than library pages and are
traditionally nowhere near as dynamic as library pages...Help!  How can I
convince those responsible for this decision that control of our website
is better left with us, where it has been successfully designed and
managed by library staff?

Thanks much for any suggestions, experiences, etc.

Cary Jardine, Librarian
Reference Services
Antioch New England Graduate School
Keene, NH  03431
603-357-3122 ext 330
carolyn_jardine at antiochne.edu