Content Management Thinktank: Agendas for Nov 13 and Dec 10 Meetings

Day 1: Requirements Gathering

Wednesday, November 13. 9 a.m. - 12 a. m. Nicholas Rutgers Room, Alexander Library, Central Admin.
Coffee service begins at 8:30 so we can start promptly at 9 a. m.

• Introduction of facilitator, Rick Anderson - Manager of Computer Systems for the Office of the Vice President for Continuous Education & Outreach
• Overview of process and goals
• What is a Web CMS?
  • Create a working definition.
• Questions and issues
  • Develop list of functional requirements. Consider areas such as:
    • Instruction
    • Online reference
    • Administrative support: assessment, calendars, schedules, reports, committees, procedures
    • Scalability / adaptability
    • Personalization / portals
    • Preservation
    • Digital projects
    • 'Scholarly communication'
    • Interactivity
    • Resource discovery. Searching etc.
    • Management of online (web) information (creator, timeliness etc.)
    • Others? meta-data support, 'self-maintenance', file format handling, 'print this page'...
• Conclusion: Overview and preparation for Day 2
• Readings (prioritized)

  1. Content Management Systems: Who needs them?

     Paul Browning and Mike Lowndes

     Ariadne, Issue 30, December 2001 [ISSN: 1361-3200]

     - Discusses Library Managment System (LMS) and then defines CMS's and their functions and features are.

     - Note: FE = 'Further Education'; HE = 'Higher Education'

     - ~14 pages

  2. CMS Feature List

     Paul Browning

     - A table of features and descriptions. Useful for assessing products/solutions.

     - ~4 pages

  3. Content Management Systems: Getting from Concept to Reality

     Chris Kartchner

     The Journal of Electronic Publishing June, 1998 Volume 3, Issue 4

     - Discusses 4 main topics: 1) When to Consider a CMS; 2) Components of a CMS; 3) Return on Investment; 4) Barriers.

     - ~7 pages

  4. Content Management

     Microsoft techNet; Jim Reynolds & Arminder Kaur et al.

     - Ignore the Microsoft marketing and e-commerce bias, focus on the bulleted list of issues, functions, and features

     - about 4 pages requiring reading

  5. Personalization and Content Management

     Metatorial Services

     - clearly lists 9 basic ways personalization is done, how the data is collected, and outlines the personalization process

     - less than 2 pages

Day 2: Analysis

Tuesday, December 10.9 a.m. - 12 a. m. Nicholas Rutgers Room, Alexander Library, Central Admin.
Coffee service begins at 8:30 so we can start promptly at 9 a. m.

• Overview of process and goals
• Review of Day 1
• Translate functional requirements into technologies and strategies
• Technical requirements/restrictions:

  Create a 'shopping list' of selection criteria covering areas such as:

  • Products: Open Source, Commercial, Hybrid?
  • Programming languages
  • Standards (DTDs, metadata, etc.)
  • Others?
• Next Steps...
  • Process of selection
  • Assessing products for suitability
  • Unanswered questions. What needs further research?
  • Creation of a Web CMS selection team?
  • Process of implementation
• Wrap-up
• Readings (prioritized)

  1. Possibilities for Open Source Software in Libraries

     Eric Lease Morgan

     Information Technologies in Libraries Volume 21, Number 1, March 2002

  2. Draft report of a meeting convened by the Digital Library Federation on October 5-6, 2001 in Washington DC to consider Open Source Software for Libraries

     Notes by D Greenstein October 22, 2001

  3. Open Source, Open Standards

     Karen Coyle

     Information Technologies in Libraries Volume 21, Number 1, March 2002

  4. Open Source Library Systems: Getting Started

     Dan Chudnov

     http://www.oss4lib.org