28 Jul 08 Questions about ALA Connect

I was recently asked two questions about ALA’s upcoming Online Communities v2 service, now known as “ALA Connect.” I thought I’d answer them here in case others are wondering the same things.

Q1. Will the new version be for ALA members only, or will it also have public-access communities?
A. ALA Connect will not be members-only, although there will be sections that will be set up that way. There will be a basic, “registered users” login for non-members who want to comment on blog posts, participate in discussion forums, and contribute to public-access communities (e.g., a community for library advocacy). However, all of the networking, member search, online résumé, and other pieces that connect you specifically with other members will be available for members only. The different types of permissions are outlined in the Requirements Document available at http://itts.ala.org/update/2008/05/08/online-communities-update-with-documents/ (section 6, page 9). It will be up to a community’s administrators to decide how they want to configure access for their community.

Q2. Will Google search ALA Connect communities and show results?
A. Google the web search engine will be able to index publicly-accessible pages in ALA Connect (AC), but those communities that have set permissions to member-only will not be searchable outside of the AC search engine. ALA does run its own version of Google to search our website, but it won’t be able to search members-only areas of ALA Connect because of those permissions, either. ALA units probably want to take this information into account when deciding how to configure their communities.

We’re moving forward (full speed ahead), but we’re happy to take a break to help everyone understand where we’re heading, so please use the Contact Us form or leave a comment if you have further questions.

Tags: ala connect, Online Communities