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Web Operational Management Group

Minutes of the Meeting of May 14, 2003
1:00 PM DC conference Room

Present: Chris Gray, Linda Hastings, Esther Millar, Bill Oldfield, Paul St-Pierre (recorder), Marina Wan (facilitator)
Absent: Charles Woods

  1. Minutes of meeting April 30, 2003 – Approved without change

  2. Business Arising
    #2 Business Arising     -#9 UMD navigation scheme.  Peter has converted the sidebar to onClick instead of onMouseOver, and documented his work.  General agreement that this is a substantial improvement.

  3. Agenda Review
    • Add #7 – adhering to XHTML standards for new pages (Chris)
    • Add #8 – changing TUGdoc (Marina)

  4. Co-op student project proposal
    • (see “Job description form” document distributed by Marina)
    • Marina & Esther to develop interview questions on consultation with Lorraine, Linda Teather.
    • Revised Job Title: Web Quality Assurance Assistant
    • Salary: agreed that job description seems to fit into USG-5 level. 1st-2nd year student probably desirable.
    • Probably enough work to cover two work terms.  Will submit job twice.
    • Considering Phase II of the project “follow-up with web page owners”, the student will need full support from WebOps in order for their suggestions to be considered by page owners.  It was agreed that the committee should set up an information session for webmaint explaining the process the student will follow and introducing them to the group.
    • LOCATION – where will they work?
      1. share office with Helen? ILL equipment in the way
      2. Connie’s workstation at Porter?
      3. Jo & Connie’s office? Not good for full-time?
      4. Paul’s office, spare computer?
      5. Preferable to have them in Davis so they can consult with Esther.
      6. Should have telephone access.
      7. ACTION: Paul to discuss with Anne so there is no overlap between ISR & WebOps co-op students

    • EQUIPMENT -
      1. Wireless laptop might be good option so student can bring machine with them when consulting with webmaint staff
      2. ACTION: Chris to discuss computer options with workstation group.
      3. ACTION: Marina to discuss project with Lorraine when Paul & Chris report

  5. Web Browsers
    • Marina attended staff workstation group meeting Thursday May 8. The group asked if WebOps could “test” the feasibility of staff requiring two browsers
    • Should we replace Netscape with Mozilla?
    • Chris - Mozilla technically superior but not stable due to continuing development.  Not recommended for general audience
    • Many staff prefer Netscape
    • Bill - Public workstations have both IE and NN6, therefore staff should also.
    • Mozilla may be recommended for use by staff engaging in web development, as it has useful features such as meta tag viewing, script debugging, standards adherence, etc.
    • Group agreed that testing not required.  Staff should have both Netscape and Internet Explorer
    • ACTION: Marina to report WebOps recommendation for both browsers to be included in the staff Windows XP image.

  6. Main page re-design
    • It was agreed to separate the work on the navbar from the re-structuring of the main part of the page (particularly) news items, in order to expedite the navbar upgrade.  Considerable discussion and work will be required to re-design the other parts of the page.
    • Linda & Esther have completed prototype of new navbar for top and 2nd level.
    • Top page: http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/images-libweb1/librarytop.html
    • Secondary: http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/navbartop_
      test.html
    • These now (Thursday May 15) validate to HTML 4.01 trans and XHTML 1.0 standards.
    • ACTION: Marina to bring prototype to sponsors (Mark & Susan) for approval.
    • ACTION: Once approved, WebOps to inform libstaff before implementation.
    • ACTION: to implement, temporary SSI names to be changed to replace old navbar.  Esther.

  7. Designing to XHTML standards (Chris)
    • Group considering new pages to be designed adhering to XHTML standard in order to get “ahead”
    • XHTML differs from HTML in 3 main ways:
      1. All tags must be explicitly closed
      2. All attribute values must be enclosed in single or double quotes
      3. XHTML is case-sensitive and all element names and attribute names must be entirely in lower case.
    • Dreamweaver MX permits design to XHTML standards
    • ACTION: Chris & Esther to continue verifying navbar compliance to XHTML – completed Thursday May 15

  8. TUGdoc
    • To be accessible directly from TRELLIS instead of web form. See http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/illdd/Faq.pdf
    • Work co-ordinated by VDX & TRELLIS groups
    • Form to change June 18
    • Will require change to navbar Form dropdown.  Initially link to info about new TUGdoc procedure. Until end of September (?) in order to catch people at beginning of fall term.  At that time, link “Articles from UG, WLU, Annex” will be removed.
    • An announcement will be needed.  Place in What’s new section of web site for 2 weeks.
    • ACTION: Charles to demonstrate RACER/TUGdoc to WebOps at a future meeting.


  9. Around the Table
    • Linda – concern about overlap between LINC’s “How do I…?” pages in development and other existing library FAQs.  Marina asked for other examples of duplicate materials on the website (eg Finding periodical articles)
    • Paul raised the idea of evaluating the entire site for removal of pages that may once have been necessary, but that now provide answers that would likely be asked of an external search engine such as Google.  This would allow us to shrink the Library site, thereby making it more navigable, increasing the relevance of selected materials, and reducing maintenance costs.  Marina indicated that this would be a fairly big job that would likely be within ISMC’s domain.
    • Bill:  E-reference pages in transition to database driven.  A maintenance form is in development, to be tested by Esther & Rose.
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November 17, 2006