Minutes of October 20, 2008 Meeting

Present:

Ka-Neng Au, Stephanie Bartz, Rebecca Gardner, Karen Hartman, Dave Hoover, Tom Izbicki, Sam McDonald, Bob Nahory(recorder), Tao Yang

1) Goals and Objectives

Goals:

1. WAC will continue to collaborate with RUL Councils, Committees, and Working Groups to update and maintain content on the Libraries Website
2. WAC will support re-design efforts for the Libraries Website

Objectives:

1. WAC will collaborate with the Web Services Group to implement the transition to the Drupal content management system
2. WAC will collaborate with the IRIS Public Access Committee to implement the New Books feature on the Libraries Website

2) World Languages Project

There are 5 languages at present. Feedback on the Chinese language part has been good. Question: Are there any other languages to be added?

The Languages Box is currently at top right of page, above the News Box. After a few weeks we may want to move it below the News Box. Sam should have usage stats on the Languages Box for next WAC meeting for consideration.

3) Learning Tools - skip for this meeting

4) Drupal Update and 5)Web Master Report: (Sam McDonald)

Sam: The current server is not powerful enough to handle Drupal. The response time, with no load, is about 8 seconds. We want a response time of about 1 second for searches. It appears that we would need a new server for Drupal, but current space/power/cooling is too limited on campus for any such addition. Solution: We need to make Drupal leaner for now and look toward spring for full implementation as conditions permit. In the meantime, Sam could update some of the database indexes, which were expected for the Drupal version.

Sam handed out a new Database Description Template for Drupal (2 pages) along with 2 additional pages of detailed directions.

For use in Drupal, Sam will be requesting classifications of the various databases, with designations as Primary, Secondary or Tertiary. This will be useful for populating new research guides. Expected date for input: February 2009.

There was discussion about displaying a text message for the Ask a Librarian Live service as an alternative to the Meebo Box on the Main Page at the top. Sam will prepare a couple of display options for WAC to consider next month.

The Fordham Multimedia Lab web pages (4 pages) are now online. It is accessed from About the Libraries.

There was a general discussion about various library links. Several items were identified, as follows:

• Request was received to display the NJ Knowledge Initiative logo (NJKI). There are two choices here as to larger or smaller logo size. Both a large and a small size logo are on a test page and we await response on the choice selected. Comment from WAC - the smaller logo requires a mouse-over action to identify details because otherwise it is too small to determine what it is.
• Access World News: Some newspaper references give abstracts only instead of the full text. Rebecca Gardner will provide an update to the description to alert users.
• Tom Izbicki has updated the Stem Cell Research Guide; the Guide is almost ready for posting.
• The Wildcard page developed by Ryan Womack: Ryan wishes to discontinue maintaining this page and agreed today (10/20) that the page be dropped from the web site. WAC agrees that the page be dropped, with a date of 4 January 2009 as end date.

6) Systems Report: (Dave Hoover)

The server room is maxed out with respect to power, cooling and space. There is a need to access the status of all machines before the Drupal rollout. Response time issues are being considered. Acceptable response time specifications are needed from Ron Jantz. Infrastructure issues need to be addressed for servers and space for them.

7) IPAC Report (Stephanie Bartz)

New books and other recently cataloged items are to be listed monthly and arranged by subject and call number.

8) Other topics:

Pop-ups: Include a generic statement on all database pages where pop-ups are required to warn users.