[WEB4LIB] Re: Library website content benchmarks, best practi ces?

[Pons, Lisa (ponslm)]

We did have this situation, where I was the only one, and people submitted
updates to me, but now we have about 20 people with Contribute. 

I would like to say this has completely freed me up to do more development
(it has to some extent), but now I am also supporting 20 people with various
levels of skill, in using Contribute, and putting their content on the web,
in addition to development.

With that said, however, I still think where we are now is much better than
having everything funnel through one person. 

Lisa Pons-Haitz

Webmaster
University Libraries
University of Cincinnati
lisa.pons at uc.edu
(513)556-1431

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rachel Shuttlesworth [mailto:rshuttle at bama.ua.edu]
> Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 11:31 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: Library website content benchmarks, best
> practices?
> 
> 
> In a somewhat similar attempt to determine what level of resources 
> should be focused on our library web site, I'm trying to find 
> information regarding how many people at various academic 
> libraries (1) 
> work full time on the site (content, design, and 
> maintenance), (2) serve 
> on some sort of web site committee, and (3)supply occasional 
> content to 
> the site.
> 
> Our situation is that we have one librarian who is the full time web 
> site person. We have a web site committee of seven persons who have 
> minimal time they can allocate to the site itself (full time 
> reference 
> librarians, computer lab managers, systems managers, etc.). 
> We also have 
> a few (less than five, probably) librarians who contribute content to 
> the site, often as Word documents that have to be 
> reformatted, etc. for 
> the web. What happens is that the web site manager spends all of her 
> time doing maintenance with no time for anything else related to the 
> site. What I need to know (and would love input on from all 
> of you) is 
> how "normal" this situation is. I think if I can demonstrate 
> to others 
> in the library that more time and energy need to be focused 
> on the web 
> site by showing what others are doing, it may help our case. 
> I've tried 
> to find articles and other info on library web staffing and have not 
> been successful. Any ideas, information, and input would be 
> so appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> Rachel Shuttlesworth
> 
> Randy Norwood wrote:
> 
> > Does anyone know of any reasonably authoritative studies or 
> standards for
> > *content* best practices for academic research library 
> websites (especially
> > those serving many undergraduates)?
> > 
> > I'm not referring to usability, design or information 
> architecture, although
> > those are certainly important. Rather, are there generally accepted
> > guidelines or heuristic/expert checklists for the types of 
> content, features
> > and services that should be present on the library's 
> website, its web OPAC,
> > and its web "gateways" to online databases, journals, etc.
> > 
> > For example, many libraries provide guides to help students 
> quickly find the
> > appropriate databases to use, or provide descriptions of 
> each database to
> > help the student decide whether to use this one or that 
> one. These features
> > are very helpful, especially to undergrads, but they 
> require a fair amount
> > of human effort as well.
> > 
> > Some other examples would be OPAC support for bibliographic 
> software, online
> > reference services, ability to manage online one's loans, 
> hold/recall
> > requests, ILL requests, etc.
> > 
> > I'm trying to identify, as objectively as possible, where the
> > content/coverage of my library's website can be improved, 
> in order to make a
> > case to library admin for devoting more resources to areas 
> that need more
> > attention.
> > 
> 
> 
>