Linda White and Kenlyn Collins - Technology on a Shoe String

posted by Carol Cooke @ 3:08 PM

This was an interesting presentation on the practical application of technology in the WAG library and archives.

As I listened to Kenlyn and Linda discuss the problems they had with setting up a corporate intranet for their libraries I realized how luck I am in my library to have the financial support for the infrastructure I need to do my job. I forget that other libraries don’t have the technology budget or the technical expertise that a major academic institution does to support online initiatives.

Kenlyn and Linda showed how a small library with little resources can leverage people and resources to create a tidy intranet and begin providing online access to their collections. One of the most important things they mentioned was to simple incorporate the best practices from other institutions to make decision making and planning easier.

Kenlyn and Linda were able to get a volunteer web developer to start creating web pages for their institution but it was important to them to keep the process simple. This was critical as they needed to avoid a learning curve for staff to maintain the site once it was up! They reminded me that libraries can use WORD to create web pages. This is not as flexible as a web editor but certainly a low cost way to create a web page. There are lots of online tutorials on how to create web pages with WORD 2003. There is also a native web page wizard in WORD 2007.

They used the Library World Online Library Service which required a small online fee that they could afford. You can upload your catalogue to the web site and make it available online even with a circulation module.

I look forward to seeing the future projects they discussed come to fruition and I hope to have the opportunity to learn more.