web content strategy for libraries

Christopher Evjy Jefferson County Public Library, Colo.

Nina McHale Arapahoe Library District, Colo.

8:30a – 10a Intro to Content Strategy 10a – 10:15a Break 10:15a – 11:30a Information Architecture & Workflow 11:30a – 1p Lunch 1p – 2:30p Content Modeling 2:30p – 2:45p Break 2:45p – 4p Content Governance

• Nina @ninermac

• Chris @endupok

• #cs4lib

8:30a - 10:00a

“Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.”

-Kristina Halvorson http://www.alistapart.com/articles/thedisciplineofcontentstrategy

• One of three parts of overall web strategy, along with:

–Design strategy

–User experience strategy

• Handout: JCPL Web Strategies Document

“Hoping that a content management system will replace…human care and attention [to web content] is about as effective as pointing a barn full of unmanned agricultural machinery at a field, going on vacation, and hoping it all works out.”

-Erin Kissane, The Elements of Content Strategy

• Reference/public services have the reference interview.

• Tech Services have the AACR2, MARC record.

• IT staff have recognized industry standards.

• The web staff have content strategy. – This is our area of expertise;

– These are newly emerging librarian skills;

– Embracing content strategy creates a clear channel in which we can operate.

• Where is your web site managed? –Marketing?

– Reference/public services?

– Tech Services?

– IT?

• Who can add content? Is there an editorial process?

• Laggards/conservative organizations: – Likely require formal approval processes

– Are heavily document/policy oriented

• Innovators/cutting edge organizations: – Do you need to reign your content creators in?

– Do you need to retrofit existing content to yet-to-be-developed standards?

• Building the right team • The Web aware, the Web savvy and the Web experts • Cross-departmental team • Understand where people are coming from • Use usage data trends • Establish a sense of urgency

• Write a draft then ask them to react and discus • Starting point • Seed the discussion with a first draft

• Library websites serve needs • Service needs

• Stakeholders based in Public Services

• Organizational needs • Stakeholders based in Communications/PR Dept & Administration

• What’s your organization’s emphasis? • You’ll want to represent them in your strategy accordingly

15 minutes

10:15a – 11:30a

Who does what, how, when and how often?

• Individual or collaborative research of new content? From what sources?

• Individual or collaborative curation of content?

• Individual or collaborative authoring of content?

• Individual or collaborative entering of content?

• Individual or collaborative periodic review of content?

• When is certain content timely?

• When does certain content match our users’ context?

• When will it reach them where they are?

• When can/does it matter to their lives?

• What is the frequency of content’s change?

• What is considered dynamic?

• What degree of frequency of change is appropriate for each content type?

How much of this can we reasonably do?

If its too much, we should scale back our content.

An iterative approach using this rubric:

• Primary audience

• Scope

• Interactivity outcome

• Update frequency

Primary audience • Patrons

Scope • qualitative selection & timely promotion of events, programs and classes

• qualitative selection & timely promotion of services

• qualitative selection & timely promotion of campaigns

• no more than 5 items at a time

• primarily graphical presentation w/ text only serving as a title to elicit a click through

Interactivity outcome • circulating traffic within the website

• provide a hook into an experience of the library (digital or physical)

Frequency • multiple times per week

Primary Audience • Media & community contacts

Scope • press releases

• JCPL in the news items

• awards & recognitions

• Reporter Resources

o Fact Sheets

o Strategic Plan & Budget

o Annual Reports

o Request an Interview

Frequency • Awards & recognition items updated as needed

• Reporter Resources reviewed/updated 1x per year

Primary audience • Power users

• Staff

Scope • Comprehensive list of subscription databases listed alphabetically by name and grouped by

subject.

• Intended for staff assisting patrons or patrons doing more extensive research with the databases.

• Connects patrons with resources for topics not covered by subject guides.

Interactivity Outcome • Staff will have quick access to a complete list of JCPL’s databases.

• Patrons researching topics not covered by the subject guides will still have a path to reliable content.

Frequency • Annually

• Corrections and updates as needed

jeffcolibrary.org

Books, Movies & Music

ResearchDownloads Events

Locations & Hours

Kids Teens

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Board of trustees Our CommunityPlanning &

budgetPoliciesPress room Jobs

Ask Us Get a library card Wireless Outreach Services

VolunteerDonate Foundation & Friends

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Contact Us

(Main Navigation)

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Recursos en Espanol

Content Type Responsibility Frequency Time

Blog posts - Crazy Readerz

TART

daily

.5 hr

Reviews by Teens (patron)

TART weekly - 2x

.5 hrs

Page - Homework help (Teens)

TART quarterly 2 hrs

List - Teens TART yearly 16 hrs (2 hrs X 8 people)

Content Type Responsibility Frequency Time

Database list Digital Resources Librarian

quarterly 1 - 2 hrs

Seasonal guides Digital Resources Librarian

quarterly 1 - 2 hrs

Subject guides Digital Resources Librarian

quarterly 1 - 2 hrs

Content Type Responsibility Frequency Time

Blog posts - Books & Beyond

ISRT weekly - 3x .5 hr

List - Adults ISRT monthly 3 hrs

This can be scary for some people.

• job descriptions & performance reviews

• content from vendors & feeds

Pick a page on your site that has a lot of components that come from different sources • diagram it

• make a workflow matrix for it

Lunch: 11:30 – 1:00

1:00p – 2:30p

"This model can be used to validate the concept with stakeholders, and helps IAs and designers start thinking about the implications for the flow of the site."

from a classmate in Web Content Management class in the Syracuse LIS program

from Content Modeling: a master Skill by Rachel Lovinger, A List Apart, April 24, 2012

by Deborah Hamel, JCPL

"It allows me to represent content in a way that translates the intention, stakeholder needs, and functional requirements from the user experience design into something that can be

built by developers implementing a CMS."

from Strategic Content Management by Jonathan Kahn, A List Apart, Sept 4, 2010

• The assembly model

• Choosing content types

• Choosing content attributes

• Wordpress deals in “Posts”

• Sharepoint deals in “Documents”

• Drupal deals in “Entities”

• How structured does your content need to be?

• How modular does your content need to be?

• What volume are you dealing with? Is it predictable?

• Can your parts be reusable or do they need to be unique?

Try to combine and reuse as much as possible –Are your study rooms and your classrooms similar

enough to be one generic venue content type?

– If you have permanent subject guides (health & medicine) and other seasonal guides (taxes or winter sports), can they be one guide content type?

• Distinct, reusable elements

• Functional requirements

• Organizational requirements

• What you see on the page

• The metadata, behind the scenes

• The relationships between content types

• Microsoft Visio

• OmniGraffle (for Mac)

• Gliffy

• SmartDraw

• Creately

For people with a CMS website:

• What are your content types and why are they successful?

For people with no CMS website:

• model a section your site [assemble the elephant]

15 minutes

2:45p – 4p

• LibGuides was Auraria Library’s first CMS

• Best practices for guide content were drafted, posted, and reviewed on the intranet wiki, but never fully approved/vetted/implemented

• The result: – No consistency in IA/navigation

– No consistency in design/layout

– No consistency in image use/quality/attribution

– Frustrated web admins, frustrated librarians, frustrated users

“Web governance is the structure of people, positions, authorities, roles, responsibilities, relationships, and rules involved in managing an agency’s website(s). The governance structure defines who can make what decisions, who is accountable for which efforts, and how each of the players must work together to operate a website and a web management process effectively.” Federal Web Managers Governance and Operations Sub-Council

http://www.howto.gov/web-content/governance/definition

• Web librarians, designers, and developers

• Marketing/communications/graphic design

• Content creators (often in public services, but can include any and all other areas of the library)

• IT (in-library, external)

• Admin

What are, or should be, the responsibilities of all of these entities for library web governance? What are the relationships among them?

• Web librarians, designers, and developers

• Supervisors

• Web oversight/advisory committees

• IT department(s; library/external)

• Administration

• Boards (public libraries)

• Parent institutions (college/university)

• Job descriptions, performance plans

• Strategic plans

• Best practices, guidelines, style guides

• Process documentation

• Training materials

• Committee charges

• Web server access agreements

Who makes which rules? Why?

• Sorta…but our goals are to: – Decentralize content production

– Bring more people into the web site fold

– Take advantage of, and promote, everyone’s expertise and knowledge about library resources and services

– Establish a unified voice/brand for our libraries

– Create a web site that is consistent, current, adheres to best practices, and is easy/pleasant to maintain and use

• Two new governance models: – New content creation model

– New tool/service creation model

• People, positions, authorities, responsibilities and roles were sorted into appropriate planning, development, launch phases

• Models and processes were vetted and adopted by the Shared Leadership committee

Vet content with staff as appropriate

Content container created

Assign responsibility for content creation/maintenance

Mockup/sample content, developed based on best web writing practices

Web staff checks code, tests

CXC vets content

Published to live

Proposal for new content, revisions to CXC for idea approval

Make changes as necessary

Make changes as necessary

Planning

Development Launch

Gather information from stakeholders

• Anyone can make suggestions for new content

• Responsibility for creation/maintenance must be assumed or assigned

• Sample content must be provided before web staff work begins

• Web team makes recommendations for presentation of the content

• Content container created (Drupal content type) and designed by web staff

• Vet with staff as appropriate (depends on content)

• Web team revises as necessary based on feedback

• Communications Committee reviews/approves content

• Communications Committee vets content

• Web staff checks/tests affected parts of the web site

• Changes made, as necessary

• Content published to production environment

• Content marketed as determined by the Communications Committee

Tool/content manager/group manager assigned

Project specifications & plan developed by Online Interfaces

Working Group

Prototype developed on dev server

Prototype presented to library staff

Training conducted, if necessary

New tool deployed to live server

Prototype moved to staging server

Prototype revised based upon staff input

Documentation created

Launch date/plan coordinated

Planning Phase Development Phase Launch Phase

Written proposal, with stakeholder input, for new tool to ADs for

approval

Project manager assigned

• Requires a written proposal from initiator

• Approval (including prioritization, more to follow) by assistant directors

• Project plan and specifications developed by tech experts in Online Interfaces Working Group

• Project/content manager(s) assigned

• Web staff develop iterative prototypes in dev environment

• Complete prototype placed in context of entire site on staging environment

• Feedback from staff solicited, evaluated, incorporated

• Web team writes documentation

• Develop/conduct training

• Launch planned/coordinated

• (Left off: marketing!)

• Deployment

• Draft the following lists: – The existing web content people, positions, roles,

relationships, and responsibilities

– The existing authorities over the library’s web site

– The existing rules governing the library’s web site • Policies, best practices, job descriptions, strategic plans

• Do a quick assessment (what exists of) your current governance model

• Write/sketch some suggested improvements

• Be democratic

• Be transparent

• Be overly communicative

• Be positive/use positive language

• Give authority to others, with a clear understanding of the related responsibilities

• Ask for authority for yourself, and articulate why you need it

Chris Evjy chris.evjy@jeffcolibrary.org

@endupok

Nina McHale

nmchale@ald.lib.co.us

@ninermac

• Drupal4lib BoF: 10:30-noon, Marriott

• Drupal lunch, 12-1:30 Marriott

• How to Build a Web App Using Drupal, Cary Gordon, 1:30-5:30, Anaheim Marriott Orange County, Salon 3

• Top Tech Trends & Award Presentation – ACC Ballroom A, 1:30 – 3:30

• LITA President’s Program – ACC Ballroom A, 4:00

• Happy Hour – Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, Hearthstone Lounge, 5:30

– 8:00