Is your campus library concerned that OU Campus can’t meet its needs? As the Systems Librarian in charge of administering CSU Fullerton’s Pollak Library website and as a member of the task force that developed the campus-wide OU Campus look and feel, Colleen understands multiple different perspectives. Learn how Colleen generated library buy-in through a comprehensive training plan, through the use of third-party APIs and widgets, and by treating the website like a newsroom. In this session, Colleen will discuss how to use OU Campus to address your library’s culture and special needs.

1. How to Generate Buy-In and
Excitement from Your Campus
Library
Colleen Greene, MLIS
Systems Librarian & Communications Coordinator
Pollak Library
California State University, Fullerton

2. Frustrations & Challenges
• Libraries are different
• Library websites are different
• OU Campus won’t work for a library website
• The answer to each is sometimes YES.
• The answer to each is sometimes NO.

3. Understanding Library Culture

4. Most Academic Librarians Are
Faculty
• Focus on research, education, and access
• Shared governance
• Academic freedom
• RTP (Retention, Tenure & Promotion) is
including more digital work
– Campus service
– Scholarly & creative work
– Faculty assignments

5. Libraries & Librarians Are, In
General, Early Adopters
Likely 1st
on campus to:
•Have a website
•Use a CMS
•Understand & use social media
•Focus on metadata & SEO
•Use embedded & interactive media
•Work with RSS, APIs, widgets

6. Professional & Ethical
Philosophy of “Open”
• Intellectual freedom
• Open access
• Open source
• Open data
• Rights-free

7. Understanding Library Websites

8. Typical Library Website
• Informational pages
• Discovery tools
• Proprietary licensed electronic resources
• Research & instruction guides
• Institutional repositories & digital archives
• Custom apps, databases & web services
• Blogs
• Widgets, RSS feeds, APIs

9. OU Campus is Only One Part of a
Library Website
• Examples
– Home page
– Informational pages
– News/Alert pages (if no blog)
• Why?
– Bulk of our content is proprietary research
databases, journals, ebooks, media, etc.
– Industry-standard tools that support library
metadata standards & interoperability standards

10. The Pollak Library Website
• 17+ different major websites
• 1000s of databases & journal interfaces
• Some allow us full CSS control, some allow
moderate CSS control, others little or no CSS
• Make heavy use of repurposing between web
services & OU Campus, and between OU
Campus via APIs, RSS, Assets (looking at XSL
for external databases)
• www.library.fullerton.edu

11. Patrons Have An Emotional Tie
to Library Websites
• Students & faculty stress out when our
“website” changes, runs slow, goes down
– Blockers to getting research & assignments done
– Even if bookmark discovery tools or other
interfaces, have to do proxy check to access
proprietary licensed research materials
• Instruction librarians teach from live site
• Professors include library site in LMS

12. Ways to help Your Library

13. Timing
• NEVER implement a redesign or upgrade
rollout during the academic year, unless an
emergency
– Grateful that OmniUpdate extended the V10
migration deadline through 2014.
– Librarians carry very heavy instruction loads,
which allows for no training time
– If something goes wrong, blocker for students &
faculty doing research & assignments

14. Branding & Visual Identity
• Less is better (used Ohio State model)
• But campus can provide resources to help
brand across library sites and interfaces
– Header graphic choices
– Quality stock photos
– Well-documented parent CSS
– No parent CSS changes without advanced
notifications
– Style guide for typography & colors

15. Library & Librarian Culture
• Include us in business requirements, design
stages & mockups, content strategy, training
– Many are experienced in XML, PHP, JS, etc.
– Information Architecture, metadata, SEO expertise
– While OU Campus is not open, it supports flavors of
open source that can be integrated with open systems
– We are educators, use us as campus trainers
• Use terms like consistent & more seamless “user
experience” vs. branding & identity

16. Library & Librarian Culture
• Custom librarian-centric Profile pages
– Faculty AND staff, some student assistants
– More freedom with content and formatting
– Use template logic to show/hide widgets
– Allow embedded content
• Heavy focus on education & outreach
• Each Profile is actually a directory folder.
– Profile page is index
– Store conference handouts, presentations, etc.
– Provides a mini professional portfolio space

17. Understanding the Role of the
Library Home Page
• Functions as a digital branch of the library
• Gateway to electronic resources & directory to
information about/inside the library
– Don’t want visitors hanging out here a long time
– High Analytics bounce rates means we are doing our
job > visitors are finding what they need
• Current trend is very minimalistic
– Simple, few, key visuals
– Primary emphasis on Search tools

18. Repurpose Content & Services
• General OU Campus Content (Assets)
– Related Content widgets > tagged
– Related Policies & Pages widgets > tagged
– Related Stock Images > tagged
– WNL & Library Alerts
• Third Party Services
– LibGuides & LibAnswers APIs > tagged
– Blogs > RSS + WNL > tagged
– Institutional Repositories and Digital Archives > RSS or
APIs

19. Point-Of-Need Repurposing
• Use Asset tagging to target selected content
to related library pages in OU Campus (feeds
specific widgets built into templates)
• Use Asset tagging to target selected OU
Campus sites and pages across campus (wish
list, not happening yet)
• Have campus sites make use of library RSS
(wish list, not happening yet)

20. OU Campus Template Guidance
• Using XSL to display data from custom &
third party databases
• Integrating Google Analytics event handlers
throughout site, links, forms

21. Training approaches

22. Newsroom Approach
• Few System Administrators (L 10)
• Few Super Users (L 7)
• Assign “beats” across operational units
– OU Campus Groups & Directories
– Content Team Leaders / managing editors (L 4)
– Content Team Members / reporters (L 3)
• Few spot checkers / copy editors (L 3)

23. Start With Profile Pages
• Almost everyone has more interest in Profiles
• Allows for a personal “sandbox” approach to
learning OU Campus
– Not end of world if Profile page blows up
– Allows them to learn OU Campus admin interface
– Allows them to learn OU Campus workflows
– Allows them to learn template widgets
• Required prerequisite for those moving on to
part 2 (Content Team) training

24. Contextual Training
• Academic librarians & all faculty are very
focused on learning models & pedagogy
– One-size-fits-all training not effective
– Contextual & point-of-need training preferred
• Train by operational/functional areas
– Groups, Template Groups, Directories
– Workflows (Editors & Reporters, best practices)
– More advanced training for Super Users
• Content strategy (writing for web, SEO,
content flow, content ideas)

25. Contact Information
Colleen Greene, MLIS
•cgreene@fullerton.edu
•@colleengreene
•www.colleengreene.com
•Pollak Library Faculty Profile Page
Class Link List: http://bit.ly/cgreene-outc14