25 Apr 12 ITTS News Meeting – April 24, 2012

1. Web Working Group, WWG (formerly Wed Editorial Board) – Eric Cameron, Program Officer ALA Public Programs Office and co-convenor of the new Web Working Group

Eric covered the mission and scope of the new Web Working Group as outlined below.

Mission: To create and maintain a strong web presence for ALA by incorporating best practices and trends, with a shared strategic vision.

Rationale: To optimize resources by engaging stakeholders across the association in actively sharing and implementing best web practices, rather than current editorial-only focus. To increase ITTS’s effectiveness without adding resources. To make policy and high-level recommendations to and receive such recommendations from ALA Management Group.

Who: Rotating conveners (elected by group), with staggered 12-month terms. Group open to all; outreach will be made to any units that the group identifies as lacking needed representation, especially if projects affecting that unit are planned.  Two levels of participation possible: participatory or serving as representative/liaison (following in Connect only).

 New scope:
– Policy/ high-level recommendations to and from ALA Management Group
– Develop objectives for web presence
– Discussion forum for stakeholders (key feature)
– Representative and inclusive group with flexibility of membership, and short-term ad hoc groups for specific projects
– A *working* group, with time commitment on a self-selected basis (mirroring the social media group which has been both creative and productive)
– Resource for colleagues–reach out proactively
Suggested activities/responsibilities/outcomes:
– Work with trainer to identify training needs.
– Work with Usability Officer to continuously improve website.
– Make recommendations about priorities for ALA web presence.
– Bring to group issues/proposals/changes that affect the selection and display of items on the homepage, and the top level left navigation menu, prior to implementation
– Help units adopt best practices (e.g., migrate a Word Press site to Drupal, or replicate effective ideas from other units) including implementation of microsite guidelines
– Provide coaching [and fun] for building new skills
– Create updated style guide for Drupal
– Organize informal information-sharing events open to all staff, similar to recent social media group brown bag lunches
– Track specific pages needing review; identify “owners” of seemingly abandoned pages or areas
– Identify projects, gather input, develop draft and have conveners/stakeholders take to Management Group
– Use group to help develop association-wide buy-in so changes are easier to make and more effective
– Develop pilot projects as examples of an improvement
– Solicit feasibility/analytic input from ITTS
– Identify projects deemed critical by the larger group for consideration for inclusion in ITTS budget

The new group is a successor to Web Editoral Board (WEB).  WEB started out selecting News and Highlights for the ALA homepage. WEB’s charge then expanded to cover other areas on the ALA website. WEB outgrew its orginal charge and decided to redefine its mission to encompass its new role.

WWG serves two functions:
1) To identify Projects &  Initiatives that need to be addressed
2) To be the Representative body of all stakerholders

Co-convenors are Eric Cameron, Mary Mackay, and Gwendolyn Prellwitz

Two levels of participation possible: participatory or serving as representative/liaison (following in Connect only). Representatives/liaisons can bring issues to the group.

WWG is a central place to think about what ALA and its related websites do.

2. Drupal CMS Migration Update – Louise Gruenberg
The homepage is the only content that is being served by Collage web servers.  We plan to migrate the ALA homepage on May 9th, barring any unforeseen complications.  We are configuring new server hardware for load balancing to handle the increased traffic and URL rule sets.

The Drupal book module is now available. It allows you to create web pages that will build a PDF for download. Eric Cameron will explore the application of module.

Lightbox is now available in Drupal. This application allows you to expand the display of an image or text file on the website.

A submission form for adding hightlights to website pages has been developed on the ALA training site.  The form will be made available for staff to use very soon.

A feedback form for members and the public has been developed for various sections of the website. The feedback form will route information to appropriate staff based on the section of the site they’re visiting.  The feedback form will be deployed as soon as minor revisions are implemented.   

3. ALA Connect – Sherri Vanyek
We’ve had many members and staff helping us beta test the redesign of ALA Connect.  The feedback to date has been very positive. Jenny has been giving tours of the new design to staff.  We hope to finish up with last minute revisions based on the feedback received very soon.  The launch is scheduled to take place in May 2012.

4. Ecommerce RFP – Sherri Vanyek
The new ecommerce system will replace the old Active Matter system that members currently use to join or renew their membership, register for small events and continuing education, fund raising, subscriptions, and profile management.  We have been meeting with various stakeholders across the association to gather requirements.  We plan to draft a RFP and circulate it for review.  The funds for this project will be available in the fiscal year 2013, which begins on September 1, 2012.

5. Virtual Meeting Software Update – Sherri Vanyek

We are looking at various solutions for the association. It was noted at the meeting that ease of use is very important.  Sherri and Louise will meet with the ALA Online Learning Task force on Thursday, April 26 to discuss findings. 

6. New Categories and Priorities for Track-It!– Irene Marquez

Track-IT Priorities (implemented 4/3/2012)

1. Just a casual question, comment, idea, suggestion…
2. I need some help but it’s not super time sensitive.
3. I can’t get things done until I hear back from you, please reply ASAP.
4. Things are broken and I’d like them not to be!
5. OMG! EXTREME CRITICAL EMERGENCY!! EVERYTHING’S BROKEN! People are DYING!

Track-IT Categories (implementation 04/25/2012)

1. ! Server Down !
2. Access Rights
3. ALA Software: Accounting
4. ALA Software: Outlook
5. ALA Software: iMIS
6. Hardware Support
7. Phones
8. Procurement
9. Email Marketing/Lists
10. Training
11. Web – ala.org
12. Web – ALAConnect
13. Web – Apps & Forms
14. Web – Blog, Sympa, Wikis
15. Web – Drupal on Dreamhost
16. Web – Moodle
17. Web – Other (KM, JobLIST, Store)
18. z-Other

Feedback on the priorities have been very positive. 

151 categories were whittled down to 18.  The group felt “ALA Software: Email” should be changed to “ALA Software: Outlook” and “Reports” should be changed to “Email Marketing/Lists”.  The list was updated and implemented around 5:30pm yesterday.

7. Investigating Remote Office Worker Functionality – Sherri Vanyek
We are investigating several solutions to provide remote office worker functionality. We plan to make this available to all staff.  Our current Citrix solution is being used by our remote offices.  We are looking at application virtualization or desktop virtualization as possible options. We are also looking at different options for NetStorage file sharing.

17 Aug 11 ITTS News Meeting – August 16, 2011

1. CMS Update (Louise)
   PLA has gone through the conversion process – Louise showed their new site (it’s not live at this point)
   uses the new left-hand navigation worked out by the divisions
   thank you to Steven Hoffman for all of his work getting their pages doneworking on getting Shibboleth running
   every division, round table, office, etc. is its own microsite within our Drupal installation (85+ sites right now), so Louise is setting up iMIS groups to control permissions for each onehope to get LLAMA, LITA, and the rest of the test sites converted soon for evaluation
   also hoping the PLA fixes will make the next test sites go fasterLouise is working on the Drupal “roles”  now, which will control the different sets of permissions that will be available across the microsites
   need to define the default settings for these (basic, intermediate, advanced)
   will start asking for feedback on a starter set later this weekquestion: will the current press release interface be part of the new site?
   answer: we’re implementing the existing workflow on the new site as part of the “press center”; making and publishing press releases will go back to being a website process, which American Libraries will then pull in
   press releases will publish to AL and your own site area
   PIO will control the press center
2. Shibboleth (Sherri)
   the Shibboleth server is installed and is communicating with the ActiveMatter server but it isn’t sending data yet
   we’re working to fix this last piece so that we can provide single sign-on across our sites, including the ecommerce server
   initial implementation will be for ecommerce and the website; later we’ll add ALA Connect
   question: for those who do customer service, how do we see what a non-member sees now?
   answer: you can keep two browsers open; just don’t log in to the website in one of them in order to see the public (anonymous) view
3. ALA Connect (Jenny)
   In addition to the “follow a group” and “file repository” features added a couple of months ago, we’ve added some other enhancements to the site.
   • A reminder that Connect Chat is back up, and it appears to be running smoothly. The interface barely changed, so your groups should be able to use it the same way they did before it was temporarily disabled.
   • We’ve added a tab on group rosters that shows “Followers.” This list shows you any non-group members who are “following” your group in order to receive email notifications whenever new public content is posted. For an example, see http://connect.ala.org/og/users/63987/followers. “Groups I’m following” now also appears on your profile and in your navigation dropdown menus for easy access.
   • There are new, expanded statistics for the Conference Scheduler at http://connect.ala.org/report/cs that let you view and download the numbers for a specific unit’s sessions. To get to this page, click on the “Connect statistics” link in the left-hand column on any page, go to the “CS” tab, and click on the “View session schedule adds/attendees by sponsor” link. Note that “attendee” statistics are self-reported, so they won’t be accurate until attendees begin using that feature regularly. Please also remember that only ALA staff accounts can see Connect statistics, although you can download unit reports to share with others.
   • Connect users can now set a personal URL for their profile. For example, you can find me at http://connect.ala.org/user/jenny . You can set your own personal URL by editing your profile and looking for the “My URL box.” We’ll formally announce this publicly next week, so now is a good time to go grab your name if you have a common one.
   • We added two enhancements to polls.
   • When creating a poll, you can check a box to make voting anonymous so that you get a total but no names in the results. Note that no one can see the results if you use this setting, including group admins or the poll’s creator.
   • You can check a box to have an email reminder to vote sent to all group members who haven’t voted 24 hours before the poll closes.
   • Staff liaisons and member chairs can no longer use the “add members” tab on Connect rosters that synchronize with iMIS to add a member to the roster since this should be done in iMIS only. However, removing that option means you won’t be able to add non-ALA members to a working group’s roster. If you need to add a non-member to a Connect roster that synchronizes with iMIS, please submit a Track-It request with the person’s Connect username and ITTS will add them in Connect.Note that you can still handle adding and removing users from community rosters yourself (groups that don’t synchronize with iMIS) if you’re an admin for the community.
   • When editing the properties for a group that synchronizes with iMIS, you’ll no longer be able to change the group’s status to something other than “closed.” You can’t have an “open” or “moderated” roster that synchronizes with iMIS — it has to be one or the other so that you don’t have to maintain the roster in two places. Note that you can still change the status of a community (groups that don’t synchronize with iMIS) yourself if you’re an admin for the community.
   • The “ALA Connect at Two Years” report, along with a summary of statistics from the 2011 Annual Conference Scheduler, are available on the ITTS News blog.
   • Watch for announcements of Connect refresher Q&A sessions for staff to be held in the Chicago Training Room starting in September. As always, locations outside of Chicago can request a special online Q&A session by contacting Jenny directly.