Tag Archives: Areas and Workgroups

LIS site improvements since usability testing

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Soon after the launch of the new Middlebury web site, the LIS website team conducted usability testing on the LIS parts of the site (see report 1, report 2). Many improvements have been made based on the feedback received during testing. Since part of the Team’s charge for this year included following-up on these recommendations, we thought it best to share some of the highlights. These changes were made with the help of many content managers and website editors; we thank you for your contributions!: Continue reading →

Introducing the Middlebury College LIS Facebook Page!

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We invite you to visit the new LIS Facebook Page, and if you have a Facebook account, please “Like” the Page!:

For the past few weeks the Reference & Instruction workgroup has taken the lead on posting content to this Page. Today we write to invite Fans and feedback from all of LIS (and beyond), and explain how you may help us make this page a vibrant and vital part of our online presence.

Who is this for/What is going to appear on the Page?:

We hope to focus the Page primarily toward students, but we also think the content and information shared there will be of interest to Staff and Faculty. We received feedback from SLAC (Student LIS Advisory Committee) that content postings to the Page should not be too frequent.

How will things be added?/I’d like to share something!:

If you have content you’d like to have featured on the LIS Facebook Page,  get in touch with the social media community managers, Jess Isler and Joy Pile.

Please let us know if you have questions or feedback to share about the Page. Thanks! Oh, and “Liking” the Page counts as feedback, too!

DrupalCon 2011: Day 1

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This week Ian and Adam are in Chicago for the bi-annual DrupalCon developer conference. Drupal is the software that we use to manage the Middlebury and MIIS websites, as well as a couple others.

Read on for notes on the sessions we attended.

Continue reading →

State of the Site

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Overview

What follows is a report on the state of notable web applications and sites in use at Middlebury including the College website, the Middlebury instance of WordPress (i.e. sites.middlebury.edu) and a variety of key web applications that provide services widely used by faculty, students and staff. Continue reading →

Google Analytics Workshops

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Beginning in December, Chris Norris will be offering a series of Google Analytics workshops for LIS staff. These workshops will cover the basics of how Google Analytics works and how this data can be used to better understand (and help improve) the online services that we provide to the community. The first workshop will be held on Thursday, December 9th, 2010 in Davis Family Library 105 from 1:30p to 2:30p. If you are interested in attending, please email Chris at cnorris@middlebury.edu.

Segue from Segue Updates

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The Curricular Technology Team is pleased to announce that its primary recommendations for how to segue from Segue has been approved by the Library and Information Services (LIS) Area Directors Team. In essence, the team recommended the development of a “course hub” architecture that would enable faculty to create collections of resources for a given course using a variety of platforms that would be aggregated in a single location referred to as a “hub.” For more information, see:
Segue from Segue > Course Hub

The team is now researching which platforms to include within the course hub. WordPress and MediaWiki are obvious choices since many faculty are already using these for course sites. The team also recognizes that some sort of learning management system (LMS) should also be an integral part of hub sites and is reviewing a number of LMS to present to the community as possible  candidates.

Special Collections spotlight

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Watch this for a lovely feature by the Addison Independent on Middlebury College Special Collections and Andy Wentink’s journey to his current place as Curator!

Also of local/Middlebury College interest: the music on the video is by Middlebury alumna Anaïs Mitchell from her recent “folk-opera”, Hadestown.

Google Search your Site(s)!

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Editors on the Middlebury and MIIS sites can now add a search box to their site that returns results from the current site, or a list of sites you specify. When you click “Add” in the Edit Console in Drupal, you’ll see a new content type named “Google Search”. Continue reading →