(Fwd) Summary: web site creation

["Muennich, Monika" <Muennich _at__ ub.uni-heidelberg.de>]

Liebe Inetbibler,
Ich habe vorhin eine Mail aus der amerikanischen AUTOCAT-Runde 
erhalten, von der ich glaube, dass sie fuer viele Inetbibler 
interessant ist. Da nur ganz wenige Deutsche an der Autocat 
teilnehmen, reiche ich sie an alle weiter
Viele Gruesse Monika Muennich,
UB Heidelberg 
E-Mail: muennich _at__ ub.uni-heidelberg.de

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Fri, 16 Feb 1996 00:13:10 -0600
Reply-to:      "AUTOCAT: Library cataloging and authorities discussion group"
               <AUTOCAT _at__ UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>,
               Winship <winship _at__ tenet.edu>
From:          Winship <winship _at__ tenet.edu>
Subject:       Summary: web site creation
To:            Multiple recipients of list AUTOCAT <AUTOCAT _at__ UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>

This is a summary prepared from questions asked on AUTOCAT and other
lists.  The length is a bit greater than I'ld like, but summaries of
questions asked on the list are generally posted to the list, so here
it is (had it been just a little bit longer I might have put it in the
filelist).  The topic is web site creation/maintenance, it was done by
Annemarie Toth-Waddell.  See below for her address.          Douglas
************************************************************************
               Summary of Answers to Questions Posted to:
                      LIBADMIN, AUTOCAT and LAWSRC
                                Feb. 1996

by Annemarie Toth-Waddell
Head, Cataloguing
Ontario Legislative Library
Toth-Waddell _at__ ontla.ola.org

Note: Approx. 25 responses were received.

1. How much staff time is needed to create a web site and to maintain one?
Any experience with time spent on ensuring hot linked sites are still
valid would be helpful.

Initial creation of site:
 Time spent depends on complexity of page.  A fairly simple page can take
  up to 40 hours to create, but other libraries have spent 100+ hours on
  web site creation. Inexperience of staff and lack of planning as to
  what you exactly wish to put on your page increases the time significantly.

 Using an HTML editor program makes job a bit easier.  Recommendation:
 HOT DOG.  Powerful, fast and easy to use.  Download a 30 day functional
 version from http://www.sausage.com.  Registration fee is $30 for entry
 level program; HTML Writer also recommended.

 Some libraries hire staff specifically to create a web site for them.
 Usenet forum alt.hypertext is useful.  For answers to difficult technical
 questions try comp.infowystems.www.authoring newsgroups.

Maintenance:
 Ranges from 2 to 10 hours or more per week.
 Robots can be used to check dangling links, but quite a number of links
  recover after some time of invalidness
 Contents and usefulness of sites must be rechecked regularly
 Need decision of how much detail to put in your description of sites (these
  must be checked and revised too)
 Links should be carefully selected and kept down to a manageable number
 Looking for new links can take a lot of time (up to 2 hours a day in one
  case)

Robots:
Webwatch: http://www.specter.com/
MOMSpider: http://www.ics.edu/WebSoft/MOMSpider/
Netscape SmartMarks: http://home.mcom.com/comprod/smartmarks.html
Webxref: http://www.sara.nl/cgi-bin/rick_acc_webxref/
Netbuddy: http://www.internetsol.com/netbuddy.html
URL Minder: http://www.netmind.com/URL-minder/
Red Alert: http://www.helpline.com/networty/home.html


2. Who should be given the responsibility of creating the web site?  What
type of training is required?  Should this be part of staff's job
descriptions?  Would we want representatives from the various sections of
the library?

 Task must be given some priority and be part of person(s) job descriptions,
  eg: Electronic resources specialist.
 Need representation from various parts of library since it is a
  collaborative effort
 Anyone with an interest can be trained to do it
 Some design sense is needed
 Online HTML guides available, see Yahoo under Computers and Internet,
  subgroup WWW, Beginners Guides.
 Other recommendation: an online interactive tutorial exists at
  http://snowwhite.it.brighton.ac.uk/~mas/mas/courses/html/html.html
 HTML can be tedious and need updating with depressing frequency
 Selection of hyperlinks best done by those in contact with user community
 Teams or committees often used, eg. "Contents and design" team and
  "Technical" team.  Organizational experience (i.e. cataloguing) useful
  to provide logical arrangement of data; Coding experience (HTML) useful to
  determine what is technically possible; and Public experience
  (Circ, ILL, Reference) to anticipate user behaviour and needs
 Viewing other web sites and copying their codes is helpful

3. We would like to provide staff and clients with hot links to useful web
sites through our library web site.  How do you select sites (selection
criteria) from the many sites out there?

 Magazine reviews, subject directories
 Link to other sites which maintain sources of interest to your users
 Sites should be institutionally supported, not an individual's site
 Electronic materials review committee to develop selection criteria.
 Staff assigned to regularly surf the web (eg. while on Inquiry desk)
 Advice from patrons useful


4. Who should have editorial control and/or technical responsibility?
What sort of technical support is available to you?

 Technical responsibility with Systems, eg. web page upkeep
 Technical advice may be available from a variety of sources, eg. contacts
  with other libraries
 Responsibility for contents often separate from responsibility of actually
  physically adding or deleting the links
 Committees often used to review content, use patterns and design issues.
 Must follow campus wide web policy


5. What other sort of information could be put on the web site?

 Information on library programs, policies, special collections, ILL forms,
  links to online catalogue, pathfinders, staff profiles, electronic
  reference questi on form, access to other databases.
 All functions of the library can have a role.


6. Do you have a web site we could view?
Note: Many are under construction.

For a list of library web sites:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/

Houston Community College System:
http://www.hccs.cc.tx.us/Library/library.html
National Library for Canadian information by subject:
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/caninfo/ecaninfo.htm

University of Haifa Library:
http://www-lib.haifa.ac.il

Dakota State University, Karl E. Mundt Library:
http://www.dsu.edu:80/departments/library/index.html

University of Albany:
http://libwww.albany.edu

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kathrine R. Everett Law Library:
http://ils.unc.edu/lawlibrary
or   http://ruby.ils.unc.edu/lawlibrary

Wyoming State Library:
http://cowgirl.state.wy.us

Wyoming State:
http://www.state.wy.us  (note that welcome graphic changes every time you go
in)

Utah State Library also recommended (no address)

Victoria University, E.J. Pratt Library:
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/www/viclib

Campbell University Law Library:
http://webster.campbell.edu/culawlib.htm

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Library:
http://www.uccs.edu/~library

Caestecker Public Library:
http://picard.ripon.macs.edu/main.html

In German:
Max Planck Gesellschaft:
http://www.gwdg.de/~hkuhn1/mpggvweb.html

Norman, Edem, McNaughton & Wallace, Oklahoma City:
http://www.ionet.net/~justice

Internet Tools for Attorneys:
Information on creating sites for law firms and links to related resources.
http://www.sblegal.com/sunburst/

Law-France
http://www.liber.net/law-france/

J.D. Williams Library:
http://sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/

Michael J. Tremblay, Attorney
(Good links to legal reference sources for practicing attornerys)
http://www.iii.net/users/miket

Recommended reading: Building the service-based library web site : a
step-by-step guide to design and options / by Kristen L. Garlock and
Sherry Piontek.  ALA.  0-8389-0674-5