So busy I haven't had a chance to post until now...

What has the CL been so busy with that there have been no blog updates? For one, I’ve been learning to use the library’s openCMS system and implementation (including tinyMCE). Then there are meetings (so many meetings ;) to start continue getting in touch with all the disparate librarians, staff, and students who contribute to our wonderful (but massive) library web site(s). I’ve been working on getting both a new web site (just a few pages so far, I know) for the Office of Web Technologies and Content Coordination (and its closely associated groups, the Web Content Working Group and the CMS Divisional Liaisons) as well as a personal page/profile up on netfiles (Robert Slater’s personal page). That’s what been going on in brief. Over the next few weeks, Camilla Fulton and I will be working on beefing up documentation of the CMS, as well as preparing training materials for divisional and unit training sessions for the CMS (stay posted for updates on this, we hope to begin offering sessions within a few weeks). While we are working on that, I’ll also be working with John Weible and Alex Waite to tweak the rules that govern what is allowed content in the CMS to reach the right balance between control, usability, and accessibility on the one hand, and providing those users with a solid understanding of XHTML and CSS to use a subset of CSS to position more complex pages. This means experimenting with the tinyMCE filtering rules to open up some of the most common CSS positioning elements (float, clear, width) on divs so that some of our more advanced users can correctly lay out complex pages using CSS. Following that, John and I are working together to implement an RSS aggregator feature (different from the RSS syndication/News Module they already have developed) that many of the more tech-savvy units have already been asking for. After that, we’ll be tackling the IT Word Press blogs to make a template for it that matches the new site design. Finally (because that’s not enough ;) we’ll be working on making schemas to represent the heavily used Eric Kraft layouts (and descendants), so people can easily use the same look they are used to, but have it done in pure CSS (without having to know anything about the CSS), similar to the work that Barry Bailey is doing with Bill Mischo for the faculty bios/CVs. I’ve identified a promising GSLIS student to hire, Aaron Fleisher, who should be starting next week. If you know of any hard-working students, with a solid understanding of HTML and CSS, have them drop me an email or IM. I could still use one or two more students this semester.