If you have been following along you have noticed that a post has not been made since just before Thanksgiving, which has left some people disappointed. It would be nice to be able to say that every single day has been productive; However, that is not been the case. With holidays and other things going on there has not been many exciting things going on as it pertains to the website.

Content

The majority of the work with the new website has been in regards to adding content to it. As discussed in the post Creating, editing, and managing content for the new site Basecamp is being used to manage the writing of the content. From the perspective of creating a new website Basecamp makes things very easy for me as it pertains to content. In Basecamp you have the ability to create items called ‘Writeboards’ and we have used them to represent most of the web pages in the new website. For example, one of the web pages in the new website is called ‘Building Policy’ and a ‘Writeboard’ in Basecamp has been created for the web page.

There are a handful of web pages that were not created in Basecamp for a couple of different reasons. The ‘Libraries A-Z page was not created because the web page is just a listing of the content that appears in the new website and second it will be the last page created. As we began working through the process and analyzing all of the web pages that were created there was some content that was missing, so a new web page had to be created (note to self add page to Basecamp). The new web page is for the Research and Technology Help desk that resides in the Crumb Library. This space has always been used as the reference desk in the past; However, during the fall semester it was decided to rename the space because the library started to staffing the desk with an additional person to help with technology oriented questions.

A total of 20 web pages are complete and are currently being edited. This is a good start; However, there is plenty more to do. The reason I like Basecamp so much is that it is web based and everything that has been written is plain text (a blessing to anyone creating a website). This means the content in Basecamp can just be copied directly into the new website. After being copied you have no extraneous crap that you have to edit out. You can take the plain text and make headings and lists without any problems.

Now that, I have experienced using Basecamp to write content I do not want to do it any other way. Can we put a ban on Microsoft Word? It is a nightmare when it comes to the web. Just Say No!!!

Web Server Permissions

Another important issue that, I have been working through with the Computer Technology department is with the web server. A few weeks ago some upgrades took place, which have impacted the permissions that a person has as it relates to the web server. One of the first issues that came about was when copying a file (web page) over to the web server you could not view it in a web browser. When trying to view a web page you would receive a 403 error message.

After getting this issue resolved a new one cropped up. I could go into all the details, but that would require a long detailed essay. In conclusion, there are a few things that still need to be addressed as it pertains to the web server. In implementation and upgrading technology these type of things occur. By taking a laid back approach and working with people we will get through these frustrations. Its the growing pains of technology.

This table represents the data that was collected using Google Analytics from the time that it was set up until today.

KEY:
*This web page no longer exists.
***This link redirects you to the Department of Art web page that resides in the SUNY Potsdam College website.

Other than the home page of the current website these are the following web pages that people are viewing:

• /Articles_MostTopics.php
• /library/Circulating_Laptops.php
• /library/2LEV_Indexes2.php
• /library/Audio.php
• /library/2LEV_FindingBks.php
• /library/Articles_Newspapers.php
• /library/Citing_Sources.php

Why do the LibGuides Web Pages Appear in the Data

The rest of the web pages that appear in the data are found in LibGuides. If you are like me you may be asking yourself why several of the pages that are in LibGuides appear in Google Analytics. The reason is that on the home page of the libraries current web site there is a drop down menu called subject. Whenever someone selects an item from this drop down menu it is recorded by Google Analytics.

Some Conclusions

• The /library/Circulating_Laptops.php web page is highly viewed because it is used as the background for the laptop computers that get checked out.
• People who use the website are focused on completing a task.
• Web Pages that do not have links to resources that libraries subscribe to are useless to people.

In preparation for the content being written for the website the calendar has been updated. When the calendar was originally created, I was planning on having the website finished by Thanksgiving. As far as the website this is still possible; However, not all of the content would be added to the website and not been edited. The most important change is that the new target date for the website to be completed will be Christmas 2011 (it sounds better than December 25).

Most of the month of September will be dedicated to testing the prototypes. Starting at the end of the month it will be time to start incorporating changes that need to be made to make it easier for people to locate the information they need. Along with these changes it will be time to start addressing the look and feel of the website in more detail. Yes you guessed it we can start talking about how things will actually appear to a person who visits the website. The color palette has already been chosen for the website based upon the fact that the colors for SUNY Potsdam are red and white. One less thing to have to worry about, but we still need to consider how they will be used in conjunction with each other.

Once the look and feel of the website has been addressed it will be time to start adding as much content that has been written to the website. Starting the first week of November we began to start testing the website for both Accessibility and Usability. If you use an assisitive device and would be willing to take a look at the website, we would be happy to hear from you. Even if you do not use an assisitive device and would like to participate in a usability test of the new website please let us know. The best way to get in touch would be to send me an email at patterpj @ potsdam.edu.

The month of December will be dedicated to adding the rest of the finished content to the new website and have an editor make any necessary changes to the content. The week before Christmas will be spent making any necessary changes to the content. The website will actually be finished by December 1st; However, the rest of the month will be dedicated to making sure the content looks good on-line and that links and JavaScript are working correctly. The goal is to move the new website to the live server sometime during the first or second week of January.

Just like theatre the first few weeks of the month will be like a dress rehearsal because the spring semester does not start until the end of the month. SUNY Potsdam has a three week session in January called Winterim were a small number of classes are taught. This will give us the opportunity for a smaller number of people to discover any broken links or let us know if they are having any problems accomplishing a task.

Earlier today, I created a list of all of the pages that need to have content written for them. You can view the list on Google Docs by going to the following URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G0E8nn-aDkBppD2YNZ4mY8a2ua9StOo6ltzTBrQnQrM/edit?hl=en_US. More information to follow soon about how the content is going to written.