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- Strategic Assessment and Preliminary Draft Plan
- Prepared by Ray Uzwyshyn, Web Services
- For Richter Library Web Committee
- 2003
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- This strategic assessment surveys the current state of the Otto Richter
Library Website
- Makes recommendations for future design, development, administration and
resource needs
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- Initiate and Identify mandates
- Assess internal/external factors surrounding the present site’s
development
- Focus strategies for web committee discussion regarding possible
directions for the Website’s future
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- Pro-Activity
- Assessment of external influences impinging on the website’s development
- Recognize the need for collaborative and progressive change
- Genesis of Policy Documents
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- Written as Organic working document (draft) to be drafted into policy
- Oriented towards the web committee and other interested parties input
and amendments
- From a consultative perspective focusing from the web team’s charge
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- The Richter Web site is a significant point-of-contact for users
accessing library resources and services. The Web site’s functionality
can contribute to (or hinder) a user’s capability to utilize the library
successfully. Enhancing and improving the library’s Web site requires
the focused efforts of a team of library faculty and staff.
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- The charge for the Web Team is to serve as the editorial board for the
library’s Web site. The Web Team has approval over the content and
design of the top-level pages of the site. The Web Team is responsible
for coordinating the overall organization and presentation of networked
information resources and services via the Web site.
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- Website is an amalgam of several university library and departmental
sites linked through Richter’s unique and central status
- Historically, web presence began in early 90’s and was managed,
maintained and designed by single person.
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- The library’s web presence has grown exponentially
- Web administrative and departments requesting developmental assistance
has equally expanded.
- Human resource component and planning (Policy) infrastructure to
maintain this larger presence has not accompanied this expansion.
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- Design: Loose rather than larger thought out application of visual
metaphor, graphic innovation, style sheets and forms
- Programming: combination of HTML with various database driven backend
technologies
- Multimedia: sporadic use throughout the site
- Information architecture: base structure in place
- (time to more closely investigate this structure as starting point for
the next level)
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- Series of Initial web committee brainstorming meetings should be
initiated.
- Parallel library website development and other forward looking
directions should be explored
- Supplemental reports from various web committee members regarding
recommendations for features should be initiated
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- Work with ideas of organic growth
- innovation
- Active change
- Experimentation Encouraged on Micrological Level
- Genesis of Future Policy (Adherence to Policy)
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- Factors in the library’s external environment influencing the library’s
site development
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- Library Faculty
- Staff
- Departmental Needs
- Institutional Needs
- Administrative Needs
- User Needs
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- Budgetary Constraints
- Human Resources
- Time Constraints related to Human Resources
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- Human Resource Continuous Learning
- Technology required in order to accomplish initiatives (new servers,
software, hardware)
- Limitations built into technology (download times, modem speeds, browser
compatibility issues)
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- University of Miami Socio-Cultural Location and Visual Implications
- South Florida
- Cuban/Hispanic Speaking Population
- South American Border/Boundary Area
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- University of Miami Faculty and Student Use
- Usability Studies: Who exactly are the users and how/where/why and when
is the site being used?
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- The University of Miami Web committee sees the university’s web presence
as moving towards a more pronounced marketing/advertising focus
(attracting students to the university)
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- Web Service under or minimally staffed
- Single allocated employee for daily administration, maintenance,
coordination long term design and development
- One person on library catalog
- Ancillary Specialized projects person
- Uncoordinated student assistants from various departments working on web
concerns
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- While resources are present in larger environment, there is no dedicated
web lab or budget assigned to web resources or a continuous learning
environment
- Current Web strategy works in defense (keep up as much as possible with
daily requests and without larger policy to fall back on)
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- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
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- Mapped out structure/foundational placement of library services within a
larger site
- Treasure trove of bibliographic and human resource riches with regards
to possibilities for providing information resources to students and
faculty (i.e. Cuban Heritage, Research/Ed Services)
- Combined Power of a Lobbying Force Web Team to Produce, Market and
Implement Site wide Policies to Larger Library Faculty
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- Lack of Human Resources
- Lack of Site-wide Policy with Regard to Design Issues
- Lack of Policy for submitting Requests
- Lack of Long Term Planning Strategy
- Lack of Patron usability studies
- Poor workflow (Policy) regarding Content/Design duties of Web Services
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- New Technological opportunities position the library with regards to the
wider sphere of media rich technologies and cutting edge design
- The Web team can be designed to develop as an innovative think tank for
incubating ideas regarding website innovation and open forum for
experimentation while setting a firm foundation through development of
future policies
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- Unpredictable Nature of Internet (Bandwidth Limitations)
- Lack of Human Resources
- Miscommunication between departments, lack of following policies
regarding delegation of authority for pages content/design of site
- Lack of Research/Development/Beta Version (Experimental) Time for Site
Designs
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- Service Goal: To provide a leading edge library website for users
accessing resources and services.
- Human Resource Goal: to develop staff infrastructure capable of
implementing such a website with a longer term vision
- Administrative Goal: to make funding needs explicit (budget allocation)
and create a policy structure which must be followed by all
departments/bodies/etc.
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- 1.1 Site Wide Redesign (year time line)
- Forward looking perspective
- Attention to issues of design aesthetics
- Attention to issues of multimedia
- (Flash, motion graphics, sound, video components, e-reference service)
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- 2.1
- To develop a tiered technical staff capable of implementing and
maintaining a large university website and internally training a next
tier of student assistants
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- 3.1 To educate library staff and web committee members on current design
trends, visual literacy and design technology so library science
competencies can be placed in better dialogue with web concerns to make
judgments
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- 4.1
To manage day to day concerns and requests within a policy
followed and defined workflow (i.e. feedback forms) and in an innovative
manner beneficial to the library and university mandates
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- 5.1
To make administration and wider university links aware of new
technological possibilities so that proactive planning can be engendered
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- 6.1
To initiate, develop and implement a series of usability studies
to gain a better understanding of library user population needs
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Development of Policy Infrastructure
- Adequate and Trained Staff
- Appropriate Technology
- Adequate Time for Staff
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- Strategies later become policies that guide decisions, structures and
rules that define institutions
- Web committee should begin by focusing on strategies, objectives and
issues that will later become policy
- Individual departments should be informed about this purpose and outside
opinions solicited and gathered
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- Review for next draft to solicit opinions, additions and independent
assessments for improvement (formal voting structure?)
- Recommendations of Senior Management
- Preliminary beta experimentation stage with various pages (i.e. home
page, specific departmental initiatives)
- Larger Site Design timelines begun
- Web Usability Studies
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- Strategic Planning to initiate larger ‘followed’ web policies
- Awareness of increasingly technologically mediated reality
- UM Librarians and libraries place within this reality
- Web Presence as front line vanguard on a leading edge which others
follow.
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