Skip to the content of the web site.

Web Operational Management Group

Minutes of the Meeting of March 11, 2009
2:00 - 3:30 pm, Dana Porter Conference Room 428

Present: Allan Bell (Chair), Nancy Collins, Marian Davies, Chris Gray, Tim Ireland, Esther Millar, Doug Morton, Bill Oldfield, Charles Woods (Recorder)
Regrets: Chris Gray

 

  1. Approval of WebOps Minutes of February 11, 2009
    Approved with adjustments.In particular it was noted that Charles had indeed demonstrated new report features of Google Analytics, in addition to committing to a demo of GA to ISR.

  2. Business Arising
    Charles demonstrated the new Google Analytics capabilities to WebOps. #2.4 Allan, Nancy and Tim met regarding "News Flashes" and the work is continuing.
    #4 Action completed: Bill collected Google Analytics statistics related to use of the subject guides, and will forward the data to the group.
    #5 Action: Marian will take 10 minutes in a future WebOps meeting to review the resources she discovered in her digital-collection research.
    #6 Action completed: Esther did consult with Pat and make the footer changes regarding the new Privacy Statement.
    #7.1 Action (still outstanding): Charles and Marian will meet with UMD staff about their digital map project.
    #7.2 Action completed: Nancy and Esther completed the banner changes described therein.

  3. Agenda Review
    The agenda remained unchanged.

  4. Media Server
    The group reviewed the document, "Request for a media server to house instructional videos", tabled by Tim Ireland. The document included a description of the purpose of an online media server, the stakeholders tothe proposal and the advantages and disadvantages of the approach. Allan noted that he had talked to Andrea Chappell of IST about media-server initiatives on campus and recommended that the document be forwarded to her for analysis and comment.
    Action: Allan will forward the document to Andrea.

    The group also discussed the need for means to create metadata that appropriately describes the materials delivered by a media server. It was noted that the software that accompanied a physical server might determine the workflow of metadata creation and maintenance; it was also noted that the skill sets in place in the cataloguing department for metadata maintenance might provide the better application of library skill to task.

  5. LibX revision #20
    Bill reviewed limited parts of the LibX product and promised to do a more thorough review of the plugin via a test page in a future meeting.

    It was noted that there was now an IE version in addition to the FireFox plugin. The group identified a few clerical oddities, including variant spellings of the word "catalogue". The group concluded that an Ejournals and a GetIt? option should not be added at this time. It was also recommended that the Primo system be listed above the TRELLIS system.
    Action: Bill will review the explicatory page with Nancy -- they will address the several issues associated with a spring deployment of LibX
    Action: Bill will further demonstrate the product to the group in the next meeting
    Action: Allan will contact Susan Stearns of ExLibris regarding Primo-LibX problems.
    Action: Bill will determine if LibX can be Google-Analytics enabled

  6. Web Design Matters: Ten essentials for any Library Site
    Nancy reviewed the ten sensible recommendations found at http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6634712.html to the edification of the group. These included issues regarding promotion, segmentation, visual clues, inspiring photos, search-boxes, etc. Various example sites were brought up for review to exemplify the items.

  7. Web of Science Soap Server

    Doug reviewed a problem experienced by a campus professor with the use of the Macintosh citation manager Sente. The client was malfuntioning; the user was seeking assistance from the Library in resolving a problem with SOAP connections to the Web-of-Knowledge server. Concern was expressed about the ability to support a client application not familar to staff, and about the need to encourage the user to pursue the issue further with Sente and/or Web-of-Knowledge.

    Action: Allan volunteered to download the client and experiment with the service.

  8. Around the Table

    Bill noted that changes will be made to WhereItIs based on recent book moves.

    Nancy reported that work was progressing on the DCZone project and that corresponding changes will be made to the Library site at the end of March.
    Action: Nancy will review these web changes with the group in the next WebOps meeting.

    Esther asked if the underlying cause of recent Contribute problems has been determined. Bill reported that there were suspicions about software for open-ssh, apache and the new WATIAM system.

  9. Next Meeting: March 25, 2009 at 2:00 pm in the Davis Conference Room. (Recorder Nancy)

If you have any queries or concerns about this page, please contact .

March 20, 2009