[Web4lib] FW: Drupal for library staff intranet?

[Cloutman, David]

I actually think that would be a really good use of Drupal. In my
evaluation of CMS systems for our public site, I looked carefully at
Drupal. Some of what made me not want to use it for our public Web site
might actually be strengths when looking at an internal system. Drupal's
design essentially focuses on creating community driven Web presences.
For situations where you have a community of users logging on and
contributing information to the site, such as an intranet, this makes a
good deal of sense. It gives you interactivity and collaboration, but
possibly with more control and workflow features that a wiki-based
solution, such as MediaWiki. Probably the hardest thing is figuring out
what plugin's you'll need to achieve the functionality you want. But it
really is a good option.

I don't see the absolute need to know any PHP to use Drupal. The
installation process is easy, and doesn't require you to code. If you
want to add functionality not covered in available plugins, then it is
necessary. Otherwise, you should be fine.

If you do go this way, please post your results to the list. I'd be
interested in hearing what your experiences are.

- David

---
David Cloutman <dcloutman at co.marin.ca.us>
Electronic Services Librarian
Marin County Free Library 

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of VanderHart, Robert
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 7:27 AM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] FW: Drupal for library staff intranet?


Resending this message since I didn't ever see it show up on web4lib. 

-----Original Message-----
From: VanderHart, Robert 
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:24 AM
To: 'web4lib at webjunction.org'
Subject: Drupal for library staff intranet?

I'm chairing a library team that's charged with reorganizing content on
our staff intranet, used by about 40 people.  We're also expected to
recommend an open-source solution that will allow our intranet to be a
little more self-servicing.  Specifically, we need to be able to
collaborate online to produce documentation (suggesting a wiki).  We
also have a fairly sizable collection of photos from library events and
conferences that currently sit on a networked drive, and we'd like to be
able to provide tags and collect them into various sets/albums.

I see there has been plenty of discussion on this list about Drupal.  I
know it's based on PHP, and although I have some basic knowledge of PHP,
I'm really a ColdFusion developer at heart and by experience.  So my
specific questions:

1) Would Drupal be "overkill" for our needs that I've expressed above,
especially for an intranet used by 40 people?
2) Would there be a huge need for me, as the admin, to be up to snuff on
PHP to even consider deploying Drupal?
3) Are there other software solutions you might suggest?  I know about
FarCry, an open-source CF-based CMS; has anyone used that?

Thanks!

Robert Vander Hart
Electronic Resources Librarian
Lamar Soutter Library
University of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester  MA  01655

Voice: 508-856-3290
Email: Robert.VanderHart at umassmed.edu
Web: http://library.umassmed.edu 



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