[Web4lib] CMS or something else?

[Deborah Kaplan]

On Fri, 1 Sep 2006, Tyson Tate wrote:
> If everything could be taken care of with a slick CMS, why not just
> buy the CMS, set it up, and then fire the web team? After all, we
> don't need them to maintain the site, right?

A good CMS allows all the content-providers to modify *content*,
but not *code or styles*.  You still need a web team do all the
design, programming, and accessibility, but a librarian can
modify open hours, mission statements, news, or new books without
ever adding a single bit of text which is not plain English
prose.  This is hugely empowering to the librarians, vastly
improves the responsiveness of the website to changing needs, and
frees up massive amounts of time for the Web team (and depending
on the size of the library and how dynamic the web site is, being
the gatekeeper could absolutely be a full-time job for somebody).

I'm not recommending a specific product because there are so many
out there that do exactly this, and which one you choose depends
on the budget, staffing needs, and user needs. Our library just
did a search and narrowed down from 500 possible candidates.

-Deborah
--
Deborah Kaplan
Digital Initiatives Librarian
Brandeis University