Transcript If I Could Start All Over Again: Lessons To be Learnt From The HE

If I Could Start All Over Again:
Lessons To be Learnt
From The HE Community
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath, BA2 7AY
Email
[email protected]
URL
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
UKOLN is funded by the Library and Information Commission, the Joint Information
Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by
project funding from the JISC and the European Union.
1UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.
Contents
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Introduction
Scale of the Challenges
What's the Web Site For?
Before Authoring: Web Site Structure
Case Studies:
• Home Pages
• 404 error pages
• Search engines
• Web Gateways
• Need for a More Sophisticated Approach?
• Conclusions
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UK Web Focus
UK Web Focus:
• JISC-funded post
• Advises UK HE community on web
developments
• Represents JISC on World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C)
• Organises events (e.g. national web
managers workshop)
• Dissemination of information: e.g. columns in
Ariadne <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/>
and Exploit Interactive
<http://www.exploit-lib.org/>
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About You
How many:
• Will be responsible for developing a new
library web site from scratch (or from
small beginnings)?
• Are responsible for managing a mature
web service and are looking to develop
the service further?
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Scale of the Challenges
How big is your web site?
How big might it be in 2 year's time?
How many pages, images, links, etc will you
have to manage?
Will your web site evolve from "brochureware"
to having a functional role in your organisation?
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Leeds Web Site
Analysis of Leeds Library web site
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Nottinghamshire Library web site
Analysis of Nottinghamshire CC Library web site
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What's Your Web Site For?
University web sites:
• Originally developed by enthusiasts
• Often made use of innovative new
technologies
• Deteriorated in quality as:
– Information management became more
important that software development
– Enthusiasts left or responsibilities transferred
Remember a web site is for life, not just for
Christmas
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Need for a Web Strategy
Is a need for strategic planning to address:
• What is the purpose of the web site?
• Who will manage it?
• What resources are available?
Who Will Rid Me Of This Troublesome Beast?
• Talk by John Slater (PVC at Kent)
• Web sites are becoming a drain on University
resources
• Promised benefits aren't being delivered
• Web site editors need to understand University's
strategies and priorities
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Before You Start Authoring
Domain Names
Can you get a short domain name (e.g. www.publib.rutland.org.uk) rather than being deep in
the Council hierarchy (e.g. www.rutlandcc.org.uk/departments/library/)
Short domain names are:
• More memorable
• More likely to be indexed by search engines
(typically only index 500 pages per domain)
Is this possible in Council environment?
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Before You Start Authoring
Directory Structure
Define the directory structure for the web site
• "Shallow" web sites are more memorable
and more likely to be indexed
• "Deep" web sites may be more maintainable
• Use of directories for grouping related files
is useful (e.g. keep all automatically
generated files together)
Note this refers to the underlying directory
structure – not the surface menu structure
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Directory Structure
Need to have provide a balance
…..
…..
File
File
File
…..
File
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File
Internal Linking
Use Directories
To keep URLs short and unambiguous link to
directories and use default filenames
<a href="docs/annual-report-99/"> rather than
<a href="docs/annual-report-99/rep.htm">
Keep File Extensions Simple
Avoid links to "strange" file extensions for key areas
(foo.asp, foo.cgi, foo.pl?ann-rep%7Eyear=99)
As these:
• May not be indexed
• Are not particularly memorable
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Case Studies
Case studies based on looking at relevant
communities can be very useful:
• Am I being left behind?
• Am I at the leading edge – and do I want to be?
It's often better to criticise external examples
UKOLN's WebWatch project (1997-9) used
automated tools to monitor web communities
The WebWatch column in Ariadne continues to
survey communities such as UK HE
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Case Study: Home Pages
Look at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/
events/workshops/pub-lib-nov1999/web-tour/>
What do the sites have in common?
Do you have any comments?
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Case Study: 404 Errors
Look at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/
events/workshops/pub-lib-nov1999/web-tour-404/>
What do the sites have in common?
Do you have any comments?
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Comments on 404 Pages
Ariadne article surveyed 404 pages in UK HE:
• Many sites have forgotten about this page
• A number have provided innovative features:
– Well-designed, using corporate look-and-feel
– Links to site maps
– Embedded search interfaces
• See <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue20/
404/>
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Case Study: Search Engines
Look at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/
workshops/pub-lib-nov1999/web-tour-search/>
What do the sites have in common?
Do you have any comments?
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Comments on Search Pages
Ariadne article surveyed searching services
pages in UK HE:
• Many sites have forgotten about this page
• A number have provided innovative features:
– Well-designed, using corporate look-and-feel
– Links to site maps
– Embedded search interfaces
• See <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/
webwatch/>
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Not Just For Humans
Web sites were originally designed for viewing
by humans
Now web sites have a role in business to
business (B2B) communication:
• Automated news feeds
• Automated transfer of resources
• …
Structured information is needed to support
such automation
XML is the key data format
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Example – Museum Portal
The 24 Hour
Museum is an
example of a
portal to UK
Museums which
processed
structured
information
(opening time,
news, etc.)
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http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/
What About HTML?
HTML is:
• Easy to use
• Successful
But:
• Can't be used for arbitrary document structures (e.g.
<ISBN>)
• Difficult to develop new applications - e.g. display
total of fines:
<FINE>5.15</FINE> <P>5.25</P>
• XML likely to be important in the future
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Content Management
In the future we will need more than HTML
authoring tools
We will need tools that:
• Enable fragments to be managed (e.g. SSIs for
standard navigation elements)
• Enable collections of related resources to be
managed
• Store resources in a richer format than HTML can
provide (i.e. XML)
• Enable web resources to be re-purposed
Should we forget about HTML authoring tools
and move to other technologies?
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What About Dynamic Web
Sites?
What are dynamic web sites / DHTML?
• Animated web pages
• Interactive web pages (filling in forms, chat facilities,
games)
• Links with legacy systems (e.g. OPACS, maybe
with book reservations)
• Use of backend databases for web site
management
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Conclusions
To conclude:
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Creating web pages is easy
Managing a corporate web site is difficult
The costs can easily escalate
You should have a web strategy to help with
planning and resourcing
• Planning is important
• You should consider options of scaling up from
simple tools versus use of corporate publishing
systems
• Collaborate!
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