TIS Lab

The Architecture and Planning Library redesign is now complete and moved to production. Many new improvements have been made to the information architecture, design and content integration to improve user interaction and reduce maintenance efforts.

Information architecture improvements include a new site layout which chunks content together logically and allows for easier lateral navigation. A horizontal navigation was created to classify main sections. We are now using active states to highlight the main and subsections a user visits, thus providing context and wayfinding clues. The redesigned home page spotlights new applications we’ve recently developed and allows for more continuity with the main Libraries home page and the recently redesigned Fine Arts Library.

A new design was created to integrate within the Libraries approved secondary template. This design includes a new secondary header throughout the APL site so the user easily recognizes what branch they are in. The header includes a new logo providing the full branch name and includes rotating images representing the library. Colors and graphics for the new design was drawn from collections in the branch. To separate the main content from the surrounding site a new treatment was applied to visually raise the main content and to separate the horizontal navigation by providing a distinct look for easy recognition.

Content integration and reduced maintenance has been improved by adding the site to the Content Management System and integrating Recent Arrivals, APL Highlights, and Hours. The APL Library Branch is the second branch to be integrated and managed in the Libraries’ CMS with PCL being the first. The addition of Recent Arrivals, Highlights and Hours reduce bloat by including only recent content and reduce maintenance by integrating content from the Catalog, Blog, or a central application. APL Highlights is managed through a blog, cached and displayed on the Highlights page and on the branch home page. Hours is also displayed in the branch site but maintained in a central application.

TIS would like to thank the Architecture and Planning Library Staff and Library Systems for their important collaboration.

For those of you who have been invited to begin using Google Wave, we have provided instructions for adding our University of Texas Libraries gadget to waves. It enables you to search our resources, chat with a librarian, and read the latest news from the Libraries.

Our hope is that this gadget will enhance users’ experience when using Google Wave to collaborate on group research projects.

Screen captures of the HRDI site

We’ve just launched the site for the Human Rights Documentation Initiative!  In July 2008, the University of Texas received a grant from the Bridgeway Foundation to collect and preserve fragile resources related to the Rwandan genocide and a variety of human rights issues.  The Libraries assembled a project team, assessed what partners and resources were already available here on campus, and partnered with Archive-It to begin a quarterly harvesting of URLs which will be made available via the site under Archived Web Resources.

Our team was tasked with creating a web-based interface that provides access to human rights documentation through variety of different resources including the archived URLs , physical collections of materials here at UT, the UT Libraries catalog, the UT Digital Repository, Texas Archival Resources Online, and other outside entities.  Metadata like Library of Congress Subject Headings, language, and abstracts are assigned to all the archived URLs which allowed us to incorporate a variety of search and browse options to aid discovery.

We also wanted to highlight branch libraries and student organizations involved in human rights work as well as include information on events on and around campus.

Graphically, we used hopeful, empowering images and really focused on the documentation aspect, including a rotating featured collection prominently placed on the home page.

As the site requirements developed, we added the HRDI Updates blog where the site’s content manager can provide updates on new collections, press, travelogues and photos, etc.

Some things we’d love to incorporate in future iterations are a federated search of the many available resources, ability to limit search based on format (video, mp3, PDF, etc), more options for sorting/clustering results, a robust events calendar with the option to subscribe to a newsletter, and additional languages.

Read more about the site launch or more about the Bridgeway grant.

Please feel free to send questions or feedback about the site to Jade Anderson or T-Kay Sangwand.

We’ve just added a new “Find a Subject Specialist” feature to our For Faculty page. As you begin typing the name of a subject in the input box, the search box will make suggestions to you.

For example, if you type sci into the search box it will suggest Computer Sciences, Geological Sciences, and others. This was made possible by using the jQuery javascript library and our existing subject database.

Our hope is that this new feature will enable users to more easily find subject-specific information.

We had a nice turnout for the Fall 2009 Web Author Gathering. Thanks to all who came. If you were not able to attend you can review the power point as a linked PDF below. Matt reviewed recently completed projects and soon to be completed projects. I provided an introduction to the benefits of using a javascript framework, what javascript framewark we are using, current ways we are using it, and how Developers and Web Authors can use it. Finaly we touched on Fall cleaning and answered questions.

Web_Author_Gathering_Fall 2009 (PDF)

The Technical Services Staff Web Site has been refreshed with updated content, interface, and navigation and transitioned into the Libraries’ SharePoint site. The previous site was outdated, difficult to navigate and cumbersome to maintain. A project proposal for updating the site was submitted and discussions on content and user interaction began.

The Libraries’ SharePoint site was chosen to improve content updating by not relying on a central “Web Author” and by providing a browser interface requiring no HTML/CSS knowledge.  Directories can be mounted on personal desktops for easy updating of documents. In addition permissions can be managed through the interface and can be assigned as fine as item level. SharePoint also provides the added benefit of Wikis, Web Parts (blocks of content), Notifications on content updates and many other options. In order to simplify the presentation and improve recognition of navigation elements a new SharePoint theme was created.The new site has been handed over to TS and with minimal staff training content updates are now occurring.

Technology Integration Services has added two new features to the Libraries Web Site footer.

The addition of linked social icons allows users to easily access the Libraries top social sites from any Library page. Adding these icons improves user discovery and improves exposure of these resources. “Follow us” tool tips have also been incorporated for user clarification.

A second feature is the incorporation of a “Support Us” graphic linking to the University giving form. This feature pre-selects the Libraries and also selects the appropriate branch when the user chooses support us from within a branch.

TIS would like to thank the  Library Development Office and Library Instruction Services for their collaboration.

TIS recently completed a new password-restricted Web site for members of the UT Libraries Advisory Council. The site provides Council members with a place to find the latest Advisory Council news, UT Libraries news, member contact information, the council charter, meeting minutes, and nomination form. Along with the new Web site, a new Advisory Council listserv was set up on utlists.utexas.edu that allows members to quickly communicate with each other.

The site was built in UT Libraries’ new content management system (CMS). The CMS allows us to easily restrict public access to the site by requiring a password. The password is necessary because the new site contains phone numbers and addresses of Council members. The CMS allowed us to do a few other cool things as well. For each council member, we created a single page with contact and biographical information. Then we used the CMS’s “views” feature to display that information in different ways. For example, we arranged the member list to display both alphabetically by first name and by the members’ position and term expiration date. We made each bio appears on its own page. We did not need to write a lick of HTML to create any of these displays. After a bit of prep work marking up the contact information and telling the CMS what to do with it, we sat back and let the CMS do the hard work. Even better, when it comes time to add or remove a member, the list only needs to be edited once and the changes will automatically update in all the appropriate places on the site.

The new site should prove to be a breeze to keep current. The home page features Advisory Council news and an RSS feed of the UT Libraries news (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/about/news/). The Advisory Council news lives in the CMS and uses the “views” feature to display an abbreviated list of news and the full news story, just like UT Libraries news. A couple of weeks ago we met with the folks who will maintain the site and gave a short how-to session on using the CMS. After the session they reported that they feel confident in their ability to use the CMS to update the site and look forward to not writing any HTML.

In order to improve feedback on web site issues TIS has implemented a new form. This form is linked in the footer of each page with a label of “Web Site Feedback”. Use this form to flag the following…

* Inaccurate, outdated, or inaccessible content
* Content that is redundant, too wordy, or not formatted for the Web
* Broken links
* Other content issues or comments

Features we have built into the form include a URL field pre-populated with the previous URL, a re-sizable comment box, clear notification of what the form is intended for, a spam blocker that is only required once  per user session, and a confirmation page that prints the user’s comment and provides a link back to the original URL.

The form’s ease of use has been accounted for by separating out three main sections; the required Comments, the optional About You, and the Spam Blocker. Each section is wrapped in a fieldset and each input can be tabbed in order.

Once a submission is received TIS will notify the appropriate web author and work with the web author to make appropriate updates. If the submitter provides contact information an update will be provided. For easy tracking a e-mail is automatically generated and each  submission is recorded in the Libraries Content Management System.

We hope that this new system will help us start to address redundancy and bloat which are common issues in library web sites and which our User Services division has identified as a priority concern.  Any redesign efforts we undertake in the future will be helped significantly by leaner, cleaner content.

We are pleased to announce the publication of the For Education section on Avoice.  The For Education section ties Avoice exhibit resources with K-12 lesson units. The first phase includes the “Voting Rights act of 1965”, the “Anti-apartheid Movement,” and the “Environmental Justice Movement.” Each lesson includes Learning Objectives, Activities, Documents and Worksheets, and integrates the lesson into National Learning Standards.  Thanks go to Meg Kemp of TIS and Alison Koostra of the CBCF for bringing this project to completion by the requested date.

The For Education publication completes a series of updates provided by the University of Texas Libraries Technology Integration Services and Library Systems. The additional updates include integrating the News Releases and News Listing with a new RSS feed to insure easy maintenance and consistency. Further improvements include a new Webcast, a new Environment Justice exhibit, and several updates to the existing exhibits including metadata support for the popular research tool Zoltero. Finally, improvements were made to the site’s HTML and CSS, and the site received a thorough refresh of its programming.

We would like to thank the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and Library Systems for helping use complete these updates by the requested time frame.

For further information about Avoice and the Congressional black Caucus Foundation visit the Avoice About page.