Critical things you need to know about:

a. You need to fill out the new SEO (Search Engine Optimization) metadata fields because they are now required; if you get an error message on check-in about a required field not being filled out, it’s probably a metadata field

question – we can use phrases, too?
answer – yes, just separate them by commas

need congruency between the metadata title field and the actual title field – they have to match for the alphabetization to work properly on the listings pages

b.  Some listing pages are still blank (eg, “Government Documents,” even though we have a whole Round Table devoted to this topic) and need content. Karen Muller will tag the things she knows are applicable, but it’s going to take a coordinated effort – everyone needs to pitch in to the areas that are relevant to them, because if we don’t add the content, we need to take down the aggregated pages.

c. We’re seeing some problems with Firefox 3 – Collage won’t let you upload anything (images, etc.). We also think we’re having transaction problems on the site with FF3, so if you receive a complaint, please ask the user if they are using this version of the browser. We’re trying to determine if we have a systematic “superbrowser compatability problem” or if it’s an isolated issue.

Please help us track this issue and let us know when you hear about problems with slow pages, authentication issues, etc.

2. Web Editorial Board (Louise)

Louise noted a handout about the purpose of the Web Editorial Board Tag Team, a group that has rights to the entire site and can make quick fixes without requiring permissions first. These are considered “Tier 1″ changes, and the Team will always communicate changes to the owning unit, even if it’s afterwards. The charge empowers the team to handle these types of issues.

Tier 2 fixes will have the Tag Team contacting the owning unit before making the suggested changes.

Tier 3 would be things the Team discusses with you and you then change.

The approach will be an ad-hoc one, although we may split up the work to handle specific sections of the site.

If you have questions about any of this, contact Louise or Karen Muller.

3. ALA Connect (Jenny)

Jenny showed the prototype, pre-alpha testing site for ALA Connect to give staff a sense of how the site functions

4. Keeping up with developments (Sherri)

Blog w/RSS Feed – http://itts.ala.org/update/
Wikis – http://wikis.ala.org/learningcollage  ;  http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning

5. Q&A / Wrap up

We’re just as excited as you are to be so close to the big event!

For Collage content developers, we ask that you finish your tasks, including any deployment, and log out by 4:00 pm.  We will be adding disk to the Collage SQL server to improve its performance.  Therefore, collage.ala.org will be unavailable.  The public facing Collage web servers, www.ala.org,  will not be affected.

 Tim Smith

American Library Association

312-280-5109

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please ask away in the comments. See you in Anaheim soon.

We are on high alert today and all next week to fix any major problems you find in the content. Broken links, a missing file or two – that sort of thing we ask staff to go in and fix yourselves. If your left navigation is missing, or your graphic design is messed up – please let us know that. We have people at the ready to fix such things.

Staff can check the schedule in the KMS if you need Collage training or a refresher.
Thanks and congrats, everyone! We have liftoff!

Rob

Content that will be frozen in Active Matter on Monday the 10th

- Advocacy Bucket

- Awards & Scholarships

- Awards Bucket

- Contacts & Questions

- Continuing Education

- ERT, IFRT, NMRT, SORT

- Events & Conferences

- Issues & Advocacy

- OIF

- OLOS

- Our Association

- Products & Publications

o Book Links

o Book Lists

o Editions

- Professional Tools

- Site Map A-Z

- SupportALA/Development Office

- Website Advisory Committee

This means that no one will be allowed to edit content in Active Matter in these sections starting Monday the 10th. If you have any urgent updates that reside in any of these areas, have them in place before 8:30 a.m. Monday the 10th. Any changes you make to content in Active Matter will be pulled into Collage during the final import and deploy. If you delete content in Active Matter, it will still appear in Collage, as the import can only pull in new and changed content. Put another way, it can’t pull in content that isn’t there. The original Collage import was done many months ago, so it’s very likely we pulled over things you have since deleted

Once the freeze has begun, we will do final imports and deploys on the sections above as we are able. You will have 24 hours to review your content in Collage and get us a list of major problems (see below). After we have fixed any major problems, we will will add a rule to the content services switch that will point all incoming traffic for your content to the Collage web servers, and your content will be live in Collage.

“Major Problems”

ITTS and Duo will fix problems with navigation and display. Individual units will be responsible for fixing broken links (most of which are broken in Active Matter, some of which will break in the conversion because they were “hard coded” in Active Matter), resolving shadow assets, and uploading missing pieces of content. If entire directories of content are missing, or all files of a certain type (say PDFs) are missing, ITTS and Duo will work together to get the missing content moved into Collage.

Please remember that a generous slate of training and support has been scheduled for Collage-a-Rama. See the “Training” tab in the KMS for specifics.

Second Freeze

The second freeze of Active Matter content will take place on Friday, March 14. Content in this freeze includes login pages and the home page. And after PIO has entered their weekly batch of press releases on March 18th, we will convert all press releases and other PIO content. This is necessary because so many other units point to or feed content in the press releases. It all needs to move over at once, then we can find links or feeds that are no longer functioning and fix them.

Then, on Wednesday, March 19th, we will “reverse the flow” on the content services switch, so that all incoming requests (with some exceptions) will flow to the Collage web servers instead of the Active Matter web server. Be aware that some things *will* remain on the Active Matter server, such as the Event Manager, Online Membership Application, and numerous databases and forms created originally on the AM server. We will migrate these applications as time and resources permit.

We are about to embark on “Collage-a-Rama,” an intensive two-week push to get all remaining units’ web content live in Collage. Beginning March 10, we will “freeze” all remaining sections of Active Matter content, migrate them, review them, clean them up, and take them live in Collage. During this time, ITTS and Duo Consulting will be working overtime to import and deploy content in Collage, clean up any import problems, and provide training and one-on-one help.

In addition, Diane Foote, Executive Director of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), has graciously agreed to serve as project mentor for anyone having Collage conversion jitters. ALSC recently migrated its content to Collage with very little drama, so Diane has a wealth of practical advice on what to look for, how to fix minor problems, and when to ask for help. We will also solicit other Collage-savvy volunteers to help units that are short-staffed or otherwise in need of help.

There is a rough schedule for Collage-a-Rama (.doc file), but we are still working out with Duo which units will be converted on which days and hope to have that information to you by the end of this week (02/29/08). When your content has been imported and deployed in Collage, your unit will have 24 hours to review it and report any problems. Duo and ITTS will fix major structural, layout, graphic, and navigation issues you report. Units will be required to fix broken links and upload missing files themselves. If staff in your unit have not been to Collage training, now would be a good time to look at the schedule of upcoming training in the KMS (http://km.ala.org, click on “Training” tab). Five full-length Collage classes and nine 2-hour drop-in help sessions have been scheduled during Collage-a-Rama.

Units/Sections not yet live in Collage are: Advocacy Bucket, Awards & Scholarships, Awards Bucket, Book Links, Book Lists, Contacts & Questions, Continuing Education, Editions, ERT, Events & Conferences, IFRT, Issues & Advocacy, Meetings, News/ Press Releases, NMRT, OIF, OLOS, Our Association, PIO, Pre-White House, Products & Publications, Professional Tools, Site Map A-Z, SORT, Support ALA (Development), Website Advisory Committee

Please contact Rob Carlson at x3272 with any questions.

The purge process is very server-intensive, so everyone will essentially be locked out of Collage for the duration of the process. The last time we did this, it took 39 hours to complete. We don’t know for certain it will take that long this time, but please plan to be out of Collage for most of the weekend.

We want to get on a regular schedule of trimming the database monthly, and February 1 seems as good a time as any to get started. Please check in all your assets and log off Collage by 4:30 p.m. CST, Friday, February 1. We’ll send another message out when the purge is complete (probably some time Sunday afternoon).

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Rob
ALA Web Development Manager

800-545-2433 x 3272

Upgrading has been pretty painless in the past, so we shouldn’t be down for more than an hour. Please check in all your assets and log out by 3:00 CST today. We’ll let you know when it’s safe to go back in. Thanks.

Rob

Update: Everything appears to have gone smoothly, and the system was back up and running as of 5:30 p.m. CST this afternoon. If you encounter any problems, please let us know.

• Association for Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA)
• Continuing Library Education Network and Exchange Round Table (CLENERT)
• Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT)
• Library Support Staff Interests Round Table (LSSIRT)

Thanks to all the staffs and content managers of these units for their hard work and patience!

Rob