1. Intranet 2.0 School:
How to Build the Essential Staff
Intranet for Your Library
Chris Evjy and Nina McHale
Colorado Association of Libraries
Annual Conference
October 8 2010
4. Why do âtraditionalâ intranets fail?
⢠Theyâre not easy/intuitive to use
⢠Theyâre not integrated well into daily
workflows of all staff
⢠They donât contain useful/relevant/timely
information
⢠They are not collaborative spaces
â Communication is unidirectional
â Editorial bottlenecks stifle open communication
5. Intranets 2.0?
⢠Web 2.0 tools have the potential to help
overcome these hurdles
⢠Platforms are simpler to use (i.e., blogs, wikis)
for people without web development skills
⢠Environments can be more open and
collaborative, especially if history of content is
kept
⢠However, 2.0 tools do not guarantee success
8. Gathering Input: User Survey
⢠What do you like about our current intranet?
â Or: if we had one, what would you like to have?
⢠What do you go there to find?
â Or: what would you want to find on an intranet?
⢠What would you like to be able to do?
⢠Present them with potential features/content
⢠Design aesthetic: Google or NYTimes.com
⢠Make survey results public, but anonymous
9. Auraria Survey Example, 1 of 2
⢠Questions 1 and 2 asked respondents to view two
academic library intranets and rate:
â Content
â Presentation
â Organization
â Usability
⢠What do you currently go to the intranet to find?
â Examples: blank forms, newsletter, statistics, reports,
minutes, policies, department information
10. Auraria Survey Example, 2 of 2
⢠If provided, which of the following would you
use?
â Internal news, warnings/alerts, draft material for
cttees, conference reports, presentations, calendar,
room scheduler, budget, other
⢠What other information would you like to find or
what task would you like to perform?
⢠What do you like/dislike about current
procedures for posting to the intranet?
⢠Any other feedback?
11. Other Information Gathering Methods
⢠Observe your colleagues at work (with
permission)
â What tools to they use?
â What types of documents/data do they produce?
â Where do they store these documents/data?
⢠Visit department/team/committee meetings
â Discuss work that members perform as a team
â Are there opportunities for tech-enabled
communication and collaboration?
13. Framing the Project
⢠Who will do the work?
⢠What software/platform will be used?
⢠What types of content will we include?
⢠Where will this new creation live?
⢠When? What is our timeline?
⢠How do we pay for it?
14. Who Will Do the Work?
⢠Do you have web skills in-house?
â Does that person/those people have time to take
on a very large project?
â Can you budget the human resources?
â Team approach recommended
⢠Should you hire a developer?
â Can you budget the $?
â How will maintenance be handled post-launch?
â Who will work with the developer?
15. Where Will This New Creation Live?
⢠Where is your web server currently?
⢠Do you have a high enough level of access to
create a new site, or will you have to negotiate
with your IT support?
⢠If you donât have an appropriate environment,
investigate options such as:
â Purchasing commercial web space
â Using a free hosted service, i.e., PBWorks
â Consider how to secure sensitive information
16. What Software/Platform Will Be Used?
⢠Blogs
â Blogger
â WordPress
⢠Wikis
â PBWorks
â MediaWiki
⢠Content Management Systems
â Microsoft SharePoint
â Drupal
â An intranet is a great way to introduce a CMS into
your organization because it is low risk
17. What content areas to include?
⢠People
⢠Documents/Documentation
⢠Communication venues
⢠Professional resources
18. People
⢠Personal profiles
â Professional details
â Personal details (fun & optional)
⢠Photos arranged in galleries
⢠Birthdays! Yes!
⢠Contact lists
19. Documents/Documentation
⢠Minutes, policies, forms?
⢠Conference reports? Presentations given to the
library? Professional resources?
⢠Department, committee, group info?
⢠Procedures, documentation?
⢠Online workflow?
â Examples: purchase and travel request forms, tech
services workflow
⢠Communication?
21. Communication Venues
⢠Admin/Management ď Staff
â Blogs
⢠Staff ď Admin/Management
â Forums
⢠Staff ď Staff
â Blogs
â Forums
â Comments
⢠Between members of work groups
22. Professional Resources
⢠RSS feeds from publications
â LISNews
â LibraryJournal feeds, etc.
⢠RSS feed from LEO (Library Education
Opportunities)
⢠Conference calendar
⢠Internal job openings
⢠Local resources specific to your library
23. Sample project goals, BPL
⢠Facilitate communication between staff
members, departments & branches and
contribute to the sense of a BPL Community.
⢠Effectively support the work of BPL Public
Services staff.
⢠Provide BPL staff with a reliable source of
information concerning logistical aspects of
working for the Boulder Public Library.
⢠Introduce BPL staff to the concepts and practices
involved in web content management.
24. Auraria Project Planning
⢠In 2006, Intranet Redesign Task Group was
formed
⢠Survey conducted revealed great
dissatisfaction with legacy SharePoint intranet
⢠Aging server threatened stability of intranet
⢠Decision was made for static web site to
moved content to stable environment ASAP
⢠Work turned over to Web Librarian for
implementation
26. Migrating Content
⢠What can be moved as-is?
â very littleâŚ
⢠What needs revision?
â and by whom?
â what is critical prior to launch?
⢠What can be left off the new intranet?
â can it be forgotten forever?
â should it be archived?
27. Usability Observations
⢠âAs easy as a light switch.â
⢠Looking over usersâ shoulders
⢠Task focused
⢠Streamline user experience
â What are people getting hung up on?
â What could make tasks more efficient?
â Are your design decisions in line with the reality of
use?
28. Drupal (Boulder) vs.
MediaWiki (Auraria)
⢠Open Source/Free
⢠Fully customizable
⢠Steep backend learning
curve
⢠More user-friendly to end
users
⢠Overall, more feature
flexibility
⢠More theme (look and
feel) options for Drupal
⢠Permissions can be
defined more granularly
⢠Open Source/Free
⢠Much quicker to
install/configure/launch
⢠Automatically has
document
history/revisions,
discussion pages
⢠Backend learning curve
easier
⢠Does not handle
document files well
⢠Doesnât manage
workflow
52. Roll-out
⢠Launch Beta site
⢠Training
â Group training (workshops)
â Training tree
â Screencasts (point-of-need help)
â Help documentation
⢠Resources
⢠Marketing
â Task focused weekly campaign approach
53. Auraria Roll-out Examples
⢠Adoption by Shared Leadership Team
⢠Minutes procedures (documentation page)
⢠Group training
â Covered the basics of wikitext (links, lists)
â Individual wiki page as sandboxes
56. Assessment
⢠User Satisfaction
â Usability isnât just for the libraryâs home page
â Re-administer survey
â Individual features and content areas
⢠Metrics/quantitative evidence
â Survey results
⢠Compare to âenvironmental scanâ results
â Web statistics
58. Auraria Assessment 2010
⢠Email poll: what should be on the intranetâs
home page?
⢠Survey responses to four questions:
â How often do you refer to the intranet
â How often do you add, edit, or change content?
â What do you like best?
â What could be improved?
⢠Wiki statistics
62. Survey Results: Whatâs Good
⢠Uses network login
⢠Easy to create, edit, and store content
⢠Freedom and flexibility to add content
⢠Good for documentation
⢠Good for collaboration
⢠Gets information out of our email, off of our
hard drives, and into a centralized location
63. Survey Results:
What Could be Better
⢠Login clunky (even though itâs network)
⢠Formatting wiki pages
⢠Navigation
⢠Search feature and results
⢠Linking to non-wiki documents (i.e., shared
drive)
⢠Easy to lose content (no auto save)
⢠Integration with Excel and PowerPoint