• improved Google search has recently been implemented on the whole Middlebury site, which has already made searching for LIS content much easier

• a revised structure for the LIS Help & Support web pages

• improved directory search results, so search “by department” displays the job titles for all members of the department. For example, the listing for all LIS staff

• site banners that currently say “Library and Information Services” will soon display additional text for clearer branding of the different LIS website sections

• quick links navigation items are now standardized across all parts of the LIS web presence

• better color use in the “leaf” color theme for improved legibility

• templates for the LIS blog that align with the Drupal site, with new design options for the LIS wiki in progress

• on-page search boxes for pages that include sub-page lists is now labeled “Find on this page:” to distinguish from site-wide search boxes

• added links to check ILL requests in My MIDCAT

• a simpler format for pages that link to multiple forms for clearer and easier navigation. For example: Collection Management Forms

Remember, there’s also an option for anyone to report issues with a page using the Problems with this Page? button, and you can get in touch with LIS Content Managers by finding them at go/liscm.

What’s next? We’re moving on from following-up on the old recommendations to working on marketing strategies for the site, and soon afterward, another round of testing, likely in the form of a user needs analysis and more usability testing. Feel free to send us feedback any time. Thanks!

Most importantly, this release includes over 800 bug fixes by over 180 developers from around the world. It has been downloaded over 1 million times in the last week.

Let us know if you have any questions about this update or experience any problems.

The next step is to upgrade the network infrastructure on campus.  This step can roughly be divided into three phases: 1) replace the core network gear in Voter, Davis Family Library and Carr Hall; 2) replace the edge network switches in academic and residential buildings across campus; and 3) replace existing wireless access points in dorms and add new ones.  Obviously, this is a vast oversimplification of what is in fact an extremely complicated project!  (To give just one example, there are 136 different wire closets to be worked on in phase 2, many containing two or more old switches.)

But we are making progress.  Much of the physical installation of the new core equipment is done.  Now, as each academic and residential building gets upgraded, we turn off the routing function for those subnets in the old core router and turn that function on in the new core router.  Finally, we physically move the fiber cables to connect the new edge switch to the new core router.  Most buildings will see a ten-fold increase in network speed when this is done.

On the evening of November 18th, the Donald E. Axinn ’51, Litt. D. ’89 Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Starr Library became the first major academic building to be upgraded to the new network environment.  16 new switches were installed in the 6 different wire closets in Axinn, the new fiber cables were connected back to the new core router in Voter, and all of the Ethernet cables were moved from the old switches to the correct ports in the new switches.  The entire process took about 5-6 hours.

Next up is McCardell Bicentennial Hall, which is scheduled to be upgraded over two nights, December 15^th and 16^th.  MBH has 7 wire closets and we’ll be installing 32 new switches and replacing more than 1000 ethernet cables.

A future post will describe our plans for improving wireless in the dorms.

• The site should load faster
• Menu reordering is easier
• You can now copy and paste directly from Microsoft Word

JavaScript is a programming language used by your web browser that allows it to manipulate the web page after the server is done creating it. For example, we can use JavaScript to tell the web browser to open a box with a story in it on our site’s home page when you click on one of the bars. This gives web developers and designers a lot of flexibility when creating the site.

However, the historical problem with JavaScript is that different browsers implement the language in different ways. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Apple’s Safari each have slightly different versions. To solve this problem, we use a JavaScript library, called jQuery, that provides a unified interface to all these different versions of the language. Of course, it’s not that simple. Drupal uses one version of jQuery, but the version it uses can’t do cool things like our homepage waveform. So for the last ten months our site has been running two versions of jQuery simultaneously.

If that sounds like a lot of added, unnecessary overhead, it is. We’ve now updated the site to work with just the newest version of jQuery running. What this means is that there are no longer odd conflicts between the two versions. Anyone who has tried to reorder a menu on their site knows that these conflicts can sometimes be painful. Now when you reorder the menu the item slides as expected, rather than jumping all over the place. Additionally, you don’t need to download both versions (which your browser does in the background when you visit the site), so our pages will load faster for new visitors.

This change also allowed us to update the WYSIWYG editor that you use when composing updates on the site from TinyMCE version 3.2.1.1 to 3.3.9.2 (here’s a complete list of the changes). The big change is that the editor now does a significantly better job of formatting and will automatically clean up formatted text that you paste in – such as text you’ve composed in Microsoft Word or in an email – without you needing to use the Paste from Word or Paste as Plain Text buttons. We left the buttons in just in case.

We think we’ve worked out most of the issues with these changes at this time, but be sure to let us know if something else isn’t working.

This feature has been rolled out for MiddMedia videos on Drupal and WordPress and YouTube videos on Drupal.

Don’t worry if you’re not using one of these browsers or devices. You’ll see the same Flash video player that was there yesterday.

You will now see your browser’s built-in HTML5 video player for MiddMedia videos if you are using one of these browsers or devices:

• Safari
• an iPad or iPhone

The HTML5 audio player for MiddMedia videos appears if you are using one of these browsers or devices:

• Safari
• Chrome
• an iPad or iPhone

To see a list of the supported browsers for video in YouTube, visit their HTML5 Video Player site. You can sign up there to opt-in to their HTML5 video player trial, if you like. Note: the site lists several browsers currently in their “beta” development phase. We recommend that you do not install these browsers as features of our site may not yet work in them.

Some restrictions may apply

The technology to support these features is very new and constantly changing. We’ll keep rolling out support to new browsers and devices as it becomes available and the experience is at least as good as what you get from the Flash player. For instance, Chrome currently supports HTML5 video, but we decided not to enable it for that browser because the fullscreen button doesn’t work. Firefox also supports HTML5 video, but in a different video format that we don’t currently produce for videos uploaded to MiddMedia (WebM or OGG).

Lastly, you might notice that some of the MiddMedia videos on our site cannot be played on devices like your iPad or iPhone. The method used to encode these videos didn’t produce a video in a format that these devices recognize. However, the majority of MiddMedia videos do work and we wanted to give you the opportunity to watch some of them, rather than none of them.

The College maintains two connections to the Internet: our primary connection is via Level 3 Communications, while Vermont traffic (and failover protection) is supported by a local provider named TelJet.   (Both Seven Days and the Burlington Free Press have recently run favorable articles on TelJet.)

Anticipating continuing, steep growth in our network traffic, LIS requested some time ago that Level 3 increase our bandwidth from 200 Mbps to 500 Mbps.  (Our TelJet connection is at 100 Mbps.)  Just last month, Level 3 completed the upgrade.  While you may not have noticed the increased speed on your desktop, you can rest assured that, at least for the time being, the tubes connecting Middlebury to the outside should be big enough to support your academic needs.

Stay tuned to this blog to learn of other plans we have for improving and expanding the campus network!

• Custom email templates
• Allow form submitters to save a draft
• Decide what information to download from your form results
• Set up multi-page branched forms
• Add a free-form “Other…” option to a select list
• Add custom form validation, such as “Choose up to two of these options”

The interface to interact with the Webform has also been simplified by moving most form settings into their own tabs in the Edit Console, especially the addition of the E-mails tab that gives you a quick look at who receives E-mails when the form is submitted. The interface for adding options to select list components is also easier to use with an interface to quickly add and remove options. Lastly, if you have a sidebar on the page, it is now hidden when you’re trying to edit the form components so that you can view the full form.