[Web4lib] Website Redesign Advice

[Ruth Kneale]

It's exciting to read everyone's comments - I'm looking at implementing 
a CMS at MPOW on a set of existing sites, and reading about other folks' 
findings is helping me narrow down what to try out.

Speaking of, has anyone ever taken an existing site and stuffed it into 
a CMS?  I don't really want to have to start from scratch and re-do 
every page.  Any suggestions?

cheers,
Ruth

Jason Griffey wrote:

>Well, I'm the newly-appointed webmaster (hate the term, but nothing
>better to use right now) for our library, and the first thing I did was
>insist we move to a CMS.
>
>After doing a review of a half-dozen or so, installing 2 (Drupal and
>Joomla), and testing, we decided to go with Joomla. Free, well
>supported, PHP/MySQL, and meets our needs nicely. I've heard wonderful
>things about Plone as well, but don't have the direct experience with it
>that I do with Joomla. It does take some getting used to from the backed
>perspective, but our key concern was being able to present information
>in clear ways and still be able to diversify maintenance...and Joomla
>gives us that ability, and more. We're in testing now for the design,
>and plan to launch sometime next month.
>
>Jason
>
>Jason Griffey
>Assistant Professor
>Reference & Instructional Technology Librarian
>University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
>615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN  37403
>jason-griffey at utc.edu :: (423) 425-5449 
> 
>
>This correspondence should be considered a public record and subject to
>public inspection pursuant to the Tennessee Public Records Act
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
>[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Andrea Dinkelman
>Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 12:54 PM
>To: web4lib at webjunction.org
>Subject: [Web4lib] Website Redesign Advice
>
>Hello,
>
>I'm part of a committee at Iowa State University (Parks Library) which
>is coordinating an eventual redesign of our library website. 
>
>I'm curious to know the following:
>
>1. Does your library utilize a content management system? If yes, which
>product?
>
>2. If you created a CMS from scratch, what did you use (e.g. PHP,
>MySQL, etc.)?
>
>3. Last, have any of you outsourced website design to a commercial
>designer? 
>
>To date, I've reviewed some of the following resources: "Content and
>Workflow Management for Library Web Sites: Case Studies" by Holly Yu;
>"Creating Database-Backed Library Web Pages" by Stephen Westman; and
>Library Hi Tech (V. 24 No. 1 2006-special issue on CMS). 
>
>Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Andrea Dinkelman
>Assistant Professor/Science & Technology Librarian
>Parks Library
>Iowa State University
>515-294-6943
>adinkelm at iastate.edu 
>
>
>
>
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>

-- 
Ruth A. Kneale, Systems Librarian, ATST

"Got to pull myself together... must defy laws of physics."
                               - The Tick