CMS For STRL
Cameron Asbell is the Information Technology Librarian for the Statesboro Regional Library System (STRL) and has been the acting webmaster for the last six months. Cameron considers herself a bit of a techie and reports that Content Management System (CMS) is well known in her circles. She prefers the support and features of a CMS to HTML/CSS of years past. A CMS is easier to use and more appealing for both the users and content creators. I recently had the pleasure to catch up with her and ask several questions about her CMS. She was more than happy to share.
The current Statesboro Regional Public Libraries website is designed to provide information about all the branch libraries and their programs, classes, job openings, events, and other “how to” content patrons need to know to access GALILEO and GADD, among other resources. The STRL system is using WordPress as their CMS with content hosted on Filezilla and a domain hosted by GoDaddy. The benefits of using WordPress are the support, tutorials, and updates they provide. Cameron said it was easy for her to become familiar with the system because of the tutorials, help features, and forums which came in handy since she received no training from the prior webmaster. Another great asset in her arsenal is YouTube; which is used when she runs into something she has never seen before. The problems she has with the current CMS are not due to the host platform, but rather the prior webmaster. The current website has dozens of plugins, extensions, widgets, and gadgets that were used in the past and never deleted from the system. Cameron is hesitant to delete them herself because she is not sure if they control something or are featured on a page she is unfamiliar with. There are several articles and categories that she does not use, but obviously someone did at some point in time. In her own words, “I inherited a lot of clutter and would like to start fresh with a very clean minimal website.”
The library has three people with the power and authorization to alter the site: Cameron, the library director, and the Bulloch County IT Coordinator. As you can probably guess, Cameron is the only one who manages the site. STRL does not have a system in place to train other employees on the CMS features, nor is it something that is likely to develop in the future. Cameron designates three hours every Wednesdays for website maintenance and another one or two for social media management. Overall, she spends about 30 minutes to update content for the following week and the rest of the time involves going through old pages and discovering what was done, if it is still relevant, and if it can be done easier or differently. During this process she often stumbles across straight HTML pages which have to be downloaded, edited, and re-uploaded to the site in order to be useful. She often finds pages that have been created in a “bizarre way” which look like an “insane waste of time” to her. To this day Cameron has yet to understand the thought process of the prior webmaster.
Cameron inherited the CMS from her predecessor and was not involved in the decision making process. If given the choice she would actually recreate the site using Joomla!. She likes the support they provide as well as the ease of use provided by the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) functionality. She has used Joomla! and Drupal in the past and believes Joomla! will be a great fit for STRL. When asked to describe the perfect website Cameron said, “The simpler the site the better. Less clutter and fewer moving parts mean less to break.” One key to a simple site is consistent naming. In theory, this idea is obvious, but that has not been her experience. In one story she describes the search for a particular HTML report stored on Filezilla. A search through twelve pages labeled HTML report revealed nothing of use. This process turned into a “search every page” task in order to locate the right page which was discovered under the label “monthly maintenance.” A few rules that Cameron follows in her website maintenance are to name files accurately, discard unused files, and be consistent so anyone following your footsteps does not become lost. She also wishes to move from GoDaddy to the GPLS hosting service in the near future and maybe around that time she can implement her global domination, I mean STRL website overhaul.
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I enjoyed reading your interview observations, Tia! I've always liked using Wordpress and it does turn out a pretty site, but I can see where Cameron would want a more robust, customizable CMS like Joomla. I've found it generally easier to create a website with Wordpress, but you sacrifice more finely tuned control and customization like you have with Joomla extensions and modules. Though Joomla can make your websites more dynamic, this can also lead to a steeper learning curve and a less polished site if you're not careful. It's interesting to note Cameron's rules especially when talking about naming things consistently due to the increased staff turnover rate for some libraries. Great post Tia and it sounds like you learned a lot!
ReplyDeleteThe learning curve for CMS was easier when I was able to talk with someone who uses it on a regular basis. I never thought about what happens behind the scenes, but it is a lot of work and upkeep. Kudos to you as well Michael.
ReplyDeleteThe great thing about librarianship, at least from what I've seen, is that everyone is very collaborative. Even if you end up managing a library website in the future, there's always support and help even if it's online. I know I've shared, collaborated, and bounced ideas off of other folks I work with, and it's a great thing to have that support behind you!
ReplyDeleteMy interviewee also uses Wordpress. He pointed out to me how there has long been some debate about whether Wordpress was a proper CMS and told me to Google such a "controversy", which I did. Only recently do you find articles stating unequivocally that it is indeed a CMS. It seems obvious that it was to my simple little mind, but apparently there was some back and forth about this.
ReplyDeleteOh, and the constantly moving stuff. Love it! I'm stealing that for my workplace but I'll be sure to give you credit, Tia.
ReplyDeleteThanks John. I was wondering if anyone caught the CMS reference with the title.
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