library website hosting

[Shannon E. Fox]

Thank you Cary.

You're right in that our current site is static and DreamWeaver authored. We are ready for a modern, dynamic site. Our campus IT cannot support another CMS. They have offered to work with us on incorporating our library site into the main campus WordPress-driven/CMS website. We are less enthusiastic about that option and hence are exploring alternatives. We are interested in Joomla and Drupal. We've had a few suggestions now of LibGuides that also sounds promising.

Shannon

From: Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Cary Gordon
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2014 4:46 PM
To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [WEB4LIB] library website hosting

The answer really depends on the website, and your plans for it.

Your current site appears to be static and generated by Dreamweaver. It is likely pretty low on the neediness scale and could be placed on any reliable host. Hostgator is one of those.

If you move to a CMS - I see that your institution is using Wordpress - you move to a higher level of neediness. You need an application platform - PHP for Wordpress, a database hosted on a database server, and perhaps most importantly, someone to pay attention to security and update the software and servers, when necessary. Commodity hosts like the ones you mentioned should have no problem meeting the technical requirements for a small Wordpress or Drupal site.

What they don't offer, generally, is site-specific application maintenance. In other words, they might update the database software, the web server software and the server software, but they probably won't update the service software, because that might bring down your site. This is why companies like Lishost (and mine) are worth looking at, if you are going to run a CMS.

Cherry Hill - MPOW - is a full service Drupal shop, and we do all of the maintenance, monitoring and backups for our clients. Most of our hosting customers have our basic package, which at $900/year including all you can ask support, would likely be overkill for you, but it frees them from worry.

Thanks,

Cary

On Sep 23, 2014, at 1:05 PM, Shannon E. Fox <sfox at AUSTINCOLLEGE.EDU<mailto:sfox at AUSTINCOLLEGE.EDU>> wrote:


If you are using a web hosting service for your library website, would you be willing to contact me off-list to share your experience and advice? I see that there are a number of options to choose from, such as HostGator, BlueHost, iPage, etc. that appear to be well rated and I want to select what is suitable for our small site as an academic library affiliated with a small, private, undergraduate college. It can't be too costly and I am the only one at our library who creates and maintains our web presence.

I appreciate any advice you can offer.

Shannon Fox-Teichmann
Coordinator of Electronic Services & Collections

900 N. Grand Avenue, Suite 6L
Sherman, TX  75090-4400
Phone 903.813.2559 Cell 903.267.2424
http://abell.austincollege.edu/abell
sfox at austincollege.edu<mailto:sfox at austincollege.edu>

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