Minutes of the Meeting of January 9, 2002
1:30 - 3:00 pm, Porter Conference Room
Present: Linda Hastings, Esther Millar, Bill Oldfield (Recorder), Marina Wan (Facilitator), Charles Woods
Regrets: Chris Gray
- Approval of minutes from the meeting on December 12, 2001
Approved with minor corrections.
- Business Arising:
8. UW Library Web Retention Policy - Mark has notified Library managers and DLCC personnel about the WebOps retention policies.
After the pruning back of the web space to ~350 megabytes as part of the clean-up process two years ago, it is now back up to around 840 megabytes. A zipped copy is 560 megabytes. The biggest increment is in the ereserves area which sizes out to over 300 megabtyes. This amount will store, on once tar'd and zipped, on a single CD.
Charles has requested a systems storage container for these CD's and other materials of its kind, something fireproof and theft-proof. A procedure for labelling and indexing these will be needed.
It was stressed that the CD is not a backup and recovery system. Hoover from IST is still available for file recovery. Charles will re-issue a memo about the operation of Hoover for recovering files and it will be added to the WebOps area on the web. The California archive site will be mentioned in the memo so that people are aware that this may be useful but it is not depended upon.
If access to this information is ever needed on a regular basis (Only one request has been received all year.) an accessible "This is how we looked last year" archive site could be set up.
Access 2001 Conference Notes - These notes are now available and will be sent by Bill to all WebOps members.
- Agenda Review
7. Standards and Guidelines
9. Library Photo Gallery
- Web Statistics Update
A virtual host on the Library's computer web server is being set-up to filter off all the public terminal proxy log information. This is not yet operational.
- Staff Web Project Update
The project is moving smoothly. A Linkbot check is run after every major move and orphan files and broken links dealt with immediately. The new website should be very clean. The latest status of the project can be viewed at http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/swreview/
groups.html.
- ColdFusion Update
There are two components of the new database system using ColdFusion, a database server running Postgres and a webserver with ColdFusion. New tools on new operating systems are involved. Currently PgAdmin, a client for building Postgres databases, is being used and Microsoft Access is being explored for maintenance. These tools are being used by Chris and Bill together with vncviewer for accessing Linux with more flexibility than a limited telnet client.
Currently the Scholarly Societies database, for learning purposes, is being redesigned and transferred to the Postgres server using PgAdmin. Preliminary work with ColdFusion will probably involve loading the Guelph ColdFusion version of the Journals Indexes database so that we can explore the problems of implementing a ColdFusion system and learn more about its operation.
- Standards and Guidelines
The new standards and guidelines in the staff web area are receiving accolades. They are clear and well written and should help anyone new to web maintenance activities.
- Housekeeping Issues
- Web Operational Management Committee graphic on Staff Web pages
Esther demonstrated a proposed new group logo to replace the dark version currently in place. The group liked the proposal and suggested a few minor changes. The new logo will be WebOps in red with the full name underneath.
- Time of Meeting
The 1:30 to 3:00 schedule was endorsed by everyone.
- Entering Minutes and announcements to staff
The Recorder will be responsible for adding the minutes after they have been approved. Esther will create a template for use in the minutes with the new navbar at the top. Draft minutes will be placed in the directory for preliminary viewing and after approval and any adjustments a link will be added to the regular minutes page and an announcement to staff issued with a URL to the approved minutes.
- Library Photo Gallery
A jpeg library of Library photographs is being prepared with thumbnail sized pictures linked to the full picture. Web page breakdowns by subject are being prepared. The question of disk space was mentioned and deemed not to be a problem for putting the image files on the Library's web server.
There is a spreadsheet of information on each slide. This appears to be an ideal application for a database and the spreadsheet information with added file names for the thumbnail and the full image files would provide most of what is needed for the database. Bill and Linda will consult on this possibility.
- New Library homepage and preparation for other changes to the site.
CNAG will perform some more testing next week.
Caroline McGreagor's new class will be using the Library's website to study navigation. Initially they will look at the top page and eventually the whole site. More new suggestions may result.
- How do we implement the UW navbar on TUG web pages?
The new navbar should be tested to avoid the problems encountered with the last changeover. It should be tested with the Ejournals database delivery system and the variety of browsers that may be encountered. Charles will look for resolution and other potential problems that should be tested.
- Are there documents which need to be updated immediately?
Esther will look for files in the site for possible weeding prior to the switch over. The Staff Web changeover has produced a number of trained staff and help should be available for this switch.
The idea of a libtest area, a frozen copy of the website, used during the previous changeover was again suggested. Charles will look for the procedures developed for the last changeover, which can be modified and used this time.
- Do we need to advise web maintainers on colour schemes soon?
Potential problems relating to colours were discussed relating to visibility and taste. Charles will look on the web for some colour use advise which could be passed on to staff.
- Any thought on changes to URL to comply with UWinfo standards?
To change all the existing URL to comply is too onerous. We can suggest that from now on the standard (URLs in only lower case.) should be followed.
- Next Meeting
Wednesday, January 23rd from 1:30 - 3:00 pm.
Davis Conference Room
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July 15, 2005
