Dickinson Ref Blog Educause2009

Copyright James Gerencser, Rafael Alvarado,
Malinda Triller, 2009. This work is the
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EDUCAUSE Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference 2009 “ I’ll Have What She’s Having”: Generating New Reference Questions By Blogging Old Ones Jim Gerencser College Archivist Rafael Alvarado Special Projects Coordinator Malinda Triller Special Collections Librarian Library and Information Services Dickinson College

UNDER THE HOOD

Functional Requirements
Internal (Tracking)
Client profile data (state or nation, purpose, etc.)
Cost tracking for scans, etc.
Monthly reports
Client-facing (Marketing)
SEO to boost site visibility and interaction
Aka “Googlability”
Transparency: a public record of activity

Some Observations
Normally separate problems:
Public vs. Private functions
Solution driven by awareness of affordances
Not abstract requirements
Would have fallen between the cracks
Side-effect of web-as-platform
Not only possible to merge, but synergetic
A lesson In the value of transparency

Technical Requirements
Simple to build, maintain, and use
No boutique applications!
No shoe-horn applications (e.g. ticket systems)
KISS for all parties—library staff, clients, coders
Flexible metadata
Evolvable without breaking the data model
Ability to hold public and private fields in the same record

Also …
Reportable data
Ability to separate public and private functions

Enter Drupal
Blog on steroids
Stories, tags, comments, RSS, etc.
More flexible than WordPress
Available modules to do the job
Granular authorization (roles and rights)
Sophisticated tagging (taxonomies)
Content Construction Kit (CCK)
CCK Field Permissions Module
PHP nodes

Public and Private Fields

First, adapt a content type

Then create and group fields PRIVATE PUBLIC

… add field group to access control

Finally, assign role to field group

WORKFLOW

Results

http://itech.dickinson.edu/archives
Drupal is flexible and customizable .
Reference stories are discoverable .
Reference stories are searchable .
Reference stories are taggable .
Reference stories are linkable .
Researchers can post comments .
Reference statistics are easily obtainable.
EMAIL: archives@dickinson.edu

Dickinson Ref Blog Educause2009

by Kate Theimer on Mar 05, 2009

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Dickinson Ref Blog Educause2009 — Presentation Transcript