Public Interfaces Committee
PIC minutes
August 17, 2005
9:30-11 a.m.
Attending: Katie Bauer, Julie Linden, Karen Reardon, Earl Roy (recorder), Andy
Shimp, Tao Yang
Absent: Debbie Falvey, Stephen Naron, Kalee Sprague
1. News and Announcements
Danuta will soon announce Katie's appointment as chair of PIC. Julie will remain
available to make sure the transition occurs smoothly. PIC's agenda for the upcoming
year remains to be determined.
Katie and Julie described Danuta's tentative support to revise PIC's charge
to include the power to enforce standards for library Web sites.
There was general agreement that the new Columbia U.'s library page (preview
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/news/spotlight/2005/2005-08-10.lweb.html,
will become http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/
), with it's "googlesque" semi-federated search button, is indicative
of a trend, and one that PIC should confront. It was noted that the Orbis search
on the front door is fast becoming dated.
Meg Bellinger has arranged a forum to be held the morning of Sept. 19, at which
Nik Honeysett and Tim Hart of the Getty Foundation will discuss content management,
user testing, and a template-driven Web environment. Since the Getty employs
a highly structured content management system for their suite of sites, the forum
should offer up a model against which YUL management of Web sites might be compared.
2. Feedback on the Library Front Door redesign and discussion of In Focus
There has been a generally positive reaction to the facelift. Katie reminded
PIC that the front door (or, possibly, subsequent pages) should include a prominently
featured feedback function, and a few options were discussed. Andy mentioned
that the In Focus section might be more fully exploited than it now is, and should
be more attention-grabbing. It was noted that the distinction between news and
In Focus items can be vague, but that the final decision concerning the content
and treatment of the two sections should be left to the PIC chair. Karen mentioned
that the area must be standardized before others can be allowed to use it. Although
there is currently little on the In Focus page, items will eventually rotate
off to an archive to make room for new items. The text-only page still requires
revision, and Karen offered to update it.
3. Technical standards: do we want to propose new library Web policies for
coding in XHTML?
Karen made a good case for promoting (and someday enforcing) compliance with
the XHTML standard in new and (eventually) extant library pages. An NYPL site
(http://www.nypl.org/styleguide/index.html)
was displayed that describes the benefits of compliance and the simple steps
necessary for its achievement. PIC agreed that the benefits (which include interoperability
in specialized Web environments) outweigh logistical difficulties. The topic
will be introduced at the next Web specialists' meeting. Some difficulties anticipated
include determining compliance, the expense of a site-wide overhaul, the necessity
of first determining average cost-per-page, training issues, and so on.
PIC agreed that pages under its control should be XHTML compliant, the templates
to be dealt with first. During discussion of Dreamweaver functions that might
prove helpful in realizing the plan, Karen pointed out that not all Web specialists
have the program, and proposed that it be requested for those who do not at the
next equipment request.
4. Editorial standards: review what we have in place, what we might
develop, and discuss issues of authority in enforcing standards.
PIC discussed the need for guidelines for Web content, and there was general
agreement that any guide formulated for the library should not be as heavy-handed
and prescriptive as some hosted by some other institutions. The WW&DCS site
already hosts "Checklist
of Required Elements on Web Pages and Sites Representing Yale University Library,"
and PIC hosts a library Web
style guide, but it was agreed that an attempt should be made to draft a
more comprehensive document, perhaps by an intern.
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This file last modified 10/24/06
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