A short programming note: I’ve been asked to lead a presentation on the Drupal platform for staff in LIS. This will be Monday June 15th from 3:30-5PM in LIB 105. Here is a synopsis of the presentation:

You’ve probably heard Drupal mentioned in discussions about our new website, but you might not know what Drupal actually is. Drupal is a web-based Content Management System, similar to the software that our current website runs on, but also different in many ways. In this session, Ian McBride will discuss the things that makes Drupal unique, why we chose Drupal as a platform for our new site, and look at some examples of the ways we can extend Drupal to improve our website. We’ll spend some time looking at an extension developed by Amherst College, the only other school running its entire web presence on Drupal, named Monster Menus which we’ll be using as part of the core functionality of our site.

This session requires no technical knowledge of our website, content management systems, or programming, but is a great opportunity for you to ask questions on those topics.

I’ve prepared an agenda of topics as well:

1. The Drupal CMS (20 minutes)
   1. Anatomy of a Drupal Page
   2. Drupal Nodes vs. MCMS Postings
   3. Modules
   4. Why we chose Drupal
2. Amherst’s Monster Menus (10 minutes)
   1. Creating a site hierarchy
   2. Delegating permissions and design
   3. Extending with RSS
3. Free Form Questions and Answers
   Your opportunity to ask whatever you’d like about Drupal’s features, framework, and functionality or about our future website’s structure, extensions we’re planning, and our philosophy with regards to requests for new modules. To accommodate those with scheduling conflicts, feel free to come and go as you please during this.