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Reference Working Group
July 10, 2007 2:15 pm
Warwick Public Library
Meeting called to order at 2:20. Those in attendance: Barbara J. Bussart (WNS), Julie Holden (PAW), Mary Anne Quinn (WAR), Manny Leite (TIV), Beth Johnson (CRA), Hope Houston (OLIS), and Jenifer Bond (WES). Pat LaRose was unable to attend, so Jenifer Bond presided.
No questions regarding the minutes of the last meeting. Should we take the month of August off? If we are to do a Reference Round Table in September, we should meet in August.
Reference Round Table - Sept. 19 at 10:00, Cranston Public Library. Topic: the Future of Print Reference.
OLIS needs to be included in this - "OLIS and the Reference Working Group are pleased to announce the return of the Reference Round Table…."
Trends presented at annual ALA meeting - some suggested Round Table discussion points:
1) Merchandise your collection
2) Lower shelves
3) Serve/allow coffee & other beverages
4) Interfile reference books with circulating books, circulate Reference materials
5) Downplay service desks - have stations throughout library rather than one "Reference Desk" or one "Circulation Desk".
6) Downsize print reference collections and replace with electronic sources.
7) 24/7 access through online/e-books - libraries without walls
We should send a flier to all the member libraries, as well as post a notice on the OSL mail page.
Discussion of 4 Content Management System (CMS) software packages: Confluence, Drupal, Joomla! and Plone.
First question - what do we want it to do? What does Rick want it to do? Are these two goals the same? We can only recommend on our goals.
These are the issues that we would like to see considered:
1) Create something in any program and cut and paste into the page.
2) Update all pages simultaneously
3) Browser quirks - multiple browser compatibility
4) Content created within site or editing - ease of process
5) Toolbar features easy to find and understand
6) Design consistency between all pages and sub-pages
7) Search multiple databases
8) Ability to change font size easily
9) Importability
10) Multiple simultaneous users
11) Printable
12) Archivable
13) User-friendly URLs
14) Logical hierarchy of pages
15) Support services, or exportability if the product does not continue.
16) Feedback capabilities
17) Ease of use in reality.
Hope brought printouts from cmsmatrix.org (a comparison website) with the breakdown of all four of these packages and their features. The only one of these that is not free is Confluence. Why pay if we can find a free product that does what we want it to do?
We determined that to download all of the materials that were required to actually TEST Confluence was too time-consuming to do, so those who were able to try it used the online demo, which, while being interactive to some extent, did not really give that much information.
A review of Plone stated that the learning curve was steep. It did create a visually pleasing page (NASA).
A review of Drupal stated that it was very stripped down, and was good for blogging and news sites.
The package of choice was Joomla! All who tested it found it to be easily understandable and user-friendly. At this point, we need to contact Rick to see exactly what it is HE wants this software to do.
Web Page for the Reference Working Group:
Content:
1) Make sure entire page can be seen without changing to landscape
2) Meetings, agendas, and link to minutes
3) Members of the committee, with email contact information
4) Purpose statement and history of the Reference Working Group
5) Links to training manuals, tips for using III, OPAC, etc.
6) Discussion forums (passworded for librarians only?)
7) Links to Circ and Cataloging pages
8) Link to OSL libraries and directions
9) Announcements
10) Suggestion box for Ref. Roundtables?
11) Statistics
Will we be able to publish to this page (articles, etc.)?
Next meeting: Aug. 21, 2:15 pm at Warwick Public Library
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara J. Bussart
Woonsocket Public Library
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