[Web4lib] reorganizing a web site

[Jennifer A. Keach]

Kathy,

We tackled file structure issues at the same time that we redesigned our 
site, too.  We launched our new site <http://www.lib.jmu.edu/> in August 
2005.

When we re-organized the content that users could see, we identified 
four main areas of content:  services, research, about us, and help.  We 
created directories for each of these at the root level and put files 
there that applied to the entire library organization.  Mostly, we did 
this to help our web authors to think of content as one of those 4 types 
of things.  The only files at the root level for us is the main library 
front page and our search page.

For other directories, we made some decisions based on assigning 
permissions.  We have subwebs on the site and a web manager for each of 
those subwebs--mostly aligning with branches.  So, we created 
directories for each of our subwebs so we could assign editing 
permissions at the subweb directory level.  Under each of those subweb 
directories, we again mimicked the services, research, about us, and 
help directories.  Incidentally, the user sees a unique front page for 
each subweb, but pages below that level are no longer visually 
subweb-specific, even though they live in subweb directories.  Instead, 
we are using Contribute templates so pages share the same left-hand 
navigation as other pages of their type (i.e. services, research, about 
us, help), regardless of the subweb directory in which it lives.  That 
way, we unified our information but still easily gave permissions for 
subweb managers to manage subweb-specific content.

If you want similar types of content to have similar local navigation 
and a template won't do, you might want to group like-things in 
directories together and use an include file for just that directory.  
We use specific local navigation within subject research guides and used 
include files to do so, putting all the like-subject files in their own 
directory.  All the pages that are part of the Business research guide, 
for instance, live in the same directory and display matching left-hand 
navigation from both the Contribute template (offering the "research" 
left-hand menu) and a local include file (offering navigation within the 
business pages).  Doing this also helped us with permissions, since we 
could give each subject liaison permission to their subject area.

We also looked at the length of some of the URLs and moved some files 
closer to the root directory to shorten them.  Each subject guide 
directory, for instance, is at the root so they are 
www.lib.jmu.edu/business/ instead of 
www.lib.jmu.edu/research/guides/business.  Within each of those 
directories, the subject liaison is free to arrange things as they see 
fit. 

Finally, some of our content moved into database applications.  Each of 
those applications ended up with their own directory.  That was mostly 
to keep URLs short and application files together.

So far, our approach seems to have worked for us although some 
non-spectacular exceptions did creep in.

If you are curious, you can read more about our redesign in the Fall 
2005 issue of our library newsletter <http://www.lib.jmu.edu/edge/>.  
The direct link until the next issue is published is 
<http://www.lib.jmu.edu/edge/article2.aspx>.

Good luck in your redesign!
Jennifer Keach, Head of Digital Services
James Madison University Libraries
<http://www.lib.jmu.edu/>




Kathy Gaynor wrote:

> 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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