Tao Gao – IT Consultant / Web Administrator, SCSL Catherine Buck Morgan – Information Technology Director, SCSL

April 16, 2007

Using a CMS to Build Community

Rhumba with Joomla!

Agenda

Why Joomla? Case Study – South Carolina State Library Joomla in a Nutshell

Why Joomla?

What are the Benefits? Open Source It’s Easy to Install, Use, Manage and

Reliable• Joomla vs. Drupal• Joomla vs. Blogs

Separation of Content and Form Portable Extendable Strong Support Communities

Who’s Using it? Government Agencies

• SC IT Directors Asso. Commercial Businesses

• Porsche Brazil Non-Profit Organizations

• United Nations RIC

CMS Comparison

Comparison Metrics• A tool to compare up to 10 content management systems

at once. http://www.cmsmatrix.org/matrix Google Search Trend

Case Study: SCSL

Library Background

South Carolina State Library provides, advances and promotes library services and equal access to information for all South Carolinians through:• Services to Libraries• Services to State Employees• Services to Citizens with Disabilities• Services to General Public

Why a Redesign Before:

Why a Redesign?

Issues• Static HTML• Table-based Layout• Basic Perl Scripts (i.e. Contact forms)• Outdated Content• Incoherent Navigation• Inconsistent Style and Structure• Graphically Unappealing• Lack of Interactivity• Several Hundred Scattered Pages and Growing Rapidly

Redesign Goals

What We Wanted• Standards Compliant Design (Section 508)• Intuitive Navigation• Separation of Content and Form• Staff Collaboration• Site-Wide Search• Online Job Submissions• Community Oriented• RSS Feeds

Redesign Process

Phase I: Plan• Redesign Proposal, Sept. 2004• Conducted Online User and In-House User Surveys

Mar. – Apr. 2005. 227 responses• Review of Current Content• Lessons Learned

Used SurveyMonkey to poll our users about the current website. Most useful feedback came from open-ended questions.

Decided to have people who were not familiar with the subject areas review key content areas. Worked well. Fresh eyes.

Needed a Well-Qualified & Dedicated Team– Project Manger, Creative Graphic Designer, Web Developer with

CSS and PHP Experience, Content Developer

Redesign Process

Phase II: Design• Agency Re-Branding, Feb. 2005• Interface Design and Review• Process Stalls… • Lessons Learned

Graphic designer did not have an understanding of the business case

– Result: Mock-up still presented a flat website design Who was the Project Manager??

Redesign Process

Phase III: Development• Content Audit and Review (Summer 2005)• Explore CMS Options• Find Outside Host Server for Development (Nov. 2005)• Joomla Learning Curve• Translate Graphical Interface to Joomla Templates• Content Migration• Identify and Incorporate Desired Functionality• Continued to Maintain and Update Static Site

Redesign Process

Phase V: Deployment and Evolution• Staff to review website, June 2006• New website goes live, July 2006• Site moved to new in-house server, Aug. 2006• Evaluate • Growth and Refinement• Lessons Learned

Few staff reviewed the site Day 1: Where? Why? BUT kudos for website from state and

beyond CMS makes it easier to evaluate depth of content Send web administrator to China for a month

Website Evolution After:

Website Stakeholders

Before• Homepage Committee• PR Committee• Web Administrator

After• 2 Web Managers• 25 Authors• 326 Registered Members; 130 Not Yet Approved

Special Invitation to CIL Attendees

It’s All About the People

I'm the IT Manager at SOLINET (a librarynetwork in Atlanta).  One of my co-workerssent me the link to your new site as we arecurrently looking at redesigning our site andI'm always looking for ideas. 

Your site looks great and you've included lotsof great features.  I was impressed by yourblog posting than mentioned you were able todo this in just 9 months.  I think that'simpressive.

- IT Manager, SOLINET

I love being able to add my own content to thewebsite, especially parts that update frequentlysuch as the New Resources.

- Amanda Stone

Reference Librarian

The remarks were made earlier today bya blind friend.  She uses the Internetheavily but uses a quite old version ofJAWS running on a 5-year-old PC withWindows 2000 operating system.  Ithought you would be pleased to knowhow easy it was for her to navigate.

- Reference Librarian Greenville County

The ease of adding news and links hasencouraged me to be more proactive insearching for content to add to our website. I am very happy with the new web site, andfind it easy to add content.

- Kecia Greer TBS Reader’s Advisor

Your site was easy to access and explorelinks!!!

- Library Patron

Joomla in a Nutshell

Easy Installation

Our Server Specs: Software

• PHP• MySQL• Joomla 1.02• Apache Server• XAMPP• Windows Server 2003

Hardware• CPU: Dual Xeon® 2.8 GHz• RAM: 2GB 400MHz DDR2• Storage: 36GB x 4 (RAID 5)• Tape Backup

Download Latest Joomla!

Prepare MySQL Database Unzip and Upload Files to Server

Browser Install

Template Design

Joomla Template Elements• Index.php• template_css.css • Images • templateDetails.xml

Joomla Template Flexibilities• Movable Boxes• Easy to Customize UI (User Interface)

Working with Content

Static Content• Assign Ownership• Instruct Staff in Adding Content (WYSIWYG)

Active Content• Sections, Categories and Content Items• User Submission Process• Review and Approval

User Contributed Content

WYSIWYG editor• Users Don’t Need to Know HTML • Pre-defined Content Formatting

Website Administration• Separation of Content and Form • Reinforcing Accessibility Guidelines• File Handling• Image Management

Joomla Extensions

Extensions• Templates

A templates defines the layout of your Joomla web site Front-end

• Components Components are core elements of

Joomla’s functionality.

• Modules Modules are small content items that can

be displayed anywhere that your template allows them to be displayed.

Administrator Control Panel

In Joomla Administrator ControlPanel, you can installComponents, Modules andTemplates easily.

Community Building Tools

Joomla and Library 2.0• Member Profiles• Discussion Forums• Calendar • RSS Feeds• Tag Clouds• Event Registration Management • Blogs• Groups • Photo Galleries• Book Reviews• More…

Community Building

Identify Targeted Groups and Interests Listen to User Input Offer Valuable Services That Are Easy to Use Train Community Users Have Fun!

Questions?

For discussions, additional information and updated slides, visit Joomla in Libraries . com