[Web4lib] reorganizing a web site

[JB Bryant]

Kathy:

This is analogous to creating a large library out of what started as a
small book collection. In my opinion, the root directory should be
treated as the library building itself. Few if any things should be
there. I do think the root directory should contain an "index.htm" file
-- in other words, something useful that visitors will see if they go
straight to your root. But this index file could even be a redirector.

As to organizing the content, again it is like building a book and
resource collection. Small, private libraries or even small public
libraries do not need to classify their books as granularly as larger
libraries. A very small library that uses the Dewey system might choose
to use only whole numbers in its classification system. But the
possibilities of subdividing to the right of the decimal point are
almost endless. The larger the collection, the more detail is needed in
classification.

The same is true with the files in your root directory. In the
beginning, when you only had a handful of pages, placing a few files in
the root directory was adequate. Now you've grown larger and your need
to classify with more granularity. Your size alone can determine how
much is enough.

However, if you were advising a small library on building its
classification system and that library knew it would steadily grow
significantly larger, you would probably advise them to start off with
detailed classification so that they didn't have to go back and
re-number their holdings at a later date. Similarly, how detailed you
choose to build your subdirectory structure depends on what you see in
the future for your website.

I hope this helps.


J.B. Bryant 
Knowledge CPT 
Orrville, OH 

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Kathy Gaynor
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 11:33 AM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] reorganizing a web site

We are in the midst of a complete redesign and want to use this
opportunity 
to reorganize our library's web site (<http://library.webster.edu>).
We 
started many years ago as a web site with a handful of pages that we
threw 
into the root directory.  We have made subdirectories as needed over
the 
years in a somewhat haphazard fashion (gee, the root directory is
getting 
pretty long, let's move some stuff out of there).

So far we have looked at our content and have done a rough inventory.
We 
have assigned working names to groups of similar files (e.g. "Facility 
Information", "Instructional Materials", etc.).  These are rather broad

categories to my mind.

So here are my questions:

1. How have you gone about organizing the files on your server?  Do you
put 
everything under a subdirectory (e.g. ../facility/hours.html)?  Or are
some 
things left in the root directory (e.g. ../hours.html)?

2. How narrow do you make your subdirectories (categories)?

Any advice, war stories, etc. that you could offer related to this
topic 
would be much appreciated.


Kathy M. Gaynor, Reference Librarian		
Emerson Library
Webster University				
470 E. Lockwood Ave.			
St. Louis, MO  63119
(314) 961-2660 x7811
(314) 968-7113 fax
kgaynor at webster.edu


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