[Web4lib] Looking for Library or other Non-Profit Web Sites for LIS590LWL students to Re-design Fall 2011

[Diane K. Kovacs]

Good morning Colleagues,

I'm teaching LIS590LWL Web Design and Construction for Organizations - 
an introduction to Web Design, XHTML, CSS etc. for UIUC GSLIS LEEP again 
this Fall semester.

I require each student to work with a 'client' to redesign an existing 
Web site for a non-profit organization, preferably* a special, academic, 
school, or public library, or library organization.

The course begins August 22 and ends December 7, 2011.

What we are looking for is small scale redesign projects, e.g., one area 
of a larger site - or a new design for a special patron group. I really 
like to have them work with a real non-profit organization, particularly 
with different types of libraries.  Students may also choose the library 
they currently work in or a non-profit organization known to them to 
work with.   I collect a list of organizations and then students can 
choose which they would like to work with.  Usually about 75% of the 
projects on our list are chosen by a student.

These are Library School students working through distance learning who 
are just beginning with Web Design, XHTML, CSS etc.

What they can do will be some good needs assessment, usability 
evaluations, and design planning as well as a draft Web site design 
implemented after interviewing you.  You will need to provide any 
graphics or av materials that you want to use as my students may or may 
not have the ability to create either.  This varies from year to year.  
There are sometimes very good graphic artists and sometimes students 
with programming skills who take my class and these folks may be 
interested in more advanced activities.

I cannot guarantee that any of my students will choose your projects. 
Also, some larger scale projects, the students may form teams to work on 
them.

I cannot guarantee that my students will have any programming skills 
beyond the ability to code in standard xhtml and external CSS.

Students will give you a re-design plan and example pages and work that 
you may use or you may reject their re-design plan.  Their grade is not 
affected directly by whether you accept their work or not, but by how 
well they communicate with you and how well they address your expressed 
re-design, usability, and accessibilty needs.

If you would like to be on the list of projects for my students to 
consider please email me with the following information:

What I need from you:

1. Contact person(s) with email and telephone numbers (this would be the 
'client' that students are expected to interview and interact with 
cooperatively to come up with design options)
2. The URL of the current Web site (if there is one - otherwise URL of 
the overall site associated with your organization)
3. Brief description of what you would like to have done with the site.
4. A commitment by the contact person(s) to be available by email or 
Webchat from the beginning of June through the beginning of August, 2010 
to work with my students.  This is critical.

I will respond to you whether your project fits our scope in terms of 
time and expertise of students and verify you want to be on the list.

Thank you!
Diane

*Students may work on a commercial Web site and even ask to be paid for 
it but I need to look at each project on a site by site basis for approval.


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Diane K. Kovacs - Web Teacher http://kovacs.com
AIM&  Yahoo:  SaintsMrsDi - MSN - diane at kovacs.com - GTalk - diane.kovacs at gmail.com - Di Wind on Second Life
_The Kovacs Guide to Electronic Library Collection Development: Essential Core Subject Collections, Selection Criteria, and Guidelines_, 2nd Edition (2009)
http://www.neal-schuman.com/bdetail.php?isbn=9781555706647
_The Virtual Reference Handbook: Interview and Information Delivery Techniques for the Chat and E-Mail Environments_ (2007)
http://www.neal-schuman.com/bdetail.php?isbn=1555705987