Announcements: New Port for Library Redesign and Print this Page

1. Walter was able to create a new port on the test server where we can store our files for the redesign. Basically, it will let us create a whole new directory structure and style independent of the files that already exist on the server. The url is http://137.165.201.112:8080/library/. There's a placeholder index page there right now. More to come as we begin to organize our site files...
2. I've been refining the "printer-friendly version" option on our interior indexes and databases pages (e.g., http://www.williams.edu/library/indexes/title.php). If you click on the link or print directly you get a printable page in IE and Netscape/Gecko browsers. It's set up to call a print style sheet and let you preview the page before printing. Works well in most of our new pages - pages with new header and footer. There are some bugs in how it displays the subject guide pages, especially if the subject guide pages have a sized table within the main page div. I'll continue to work on this quirk. In the meantime, have a look at the indexes and databases pages to test it out.

One more quick tip: you can use the print stylesheet switcher on any page that includes the new header and footer. Append ?q=print to any url.

Example:

http://www.williams.edu/library/schow.php?q=print

Post any thoughts or comments.

Public Messages About Our Pages

I just posted a message to Williams Daily Messages about our pending index page change. It went something like this:

Changes to Library Web Page – New URL for library home page

Over the weekend (January 22 and 23), the library home page will be changing its address. If you have bookmarks and links to the old home page, you will need to update them. The old page url is http://www.williams.edu/library/index.html. The new page URL will be http://www.williams.edu/library/index.php.

Quick troubleshooting tip: You will be seeing more of these changes as the library web site is moving to a different technology for its pages. If you come upon a “can’t find page” error, try changing the extension of the page from .html to .php.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email the library at libref-l@williams.edu or call the library research desk at x2505.

I was going for the minimal "need to know" item which is "Hey, there is a new URL and your old links will break." We can talk about if we should forward something similar via liaisons. I'll post the message again for Friday. I was thinking a more detailed message of the changes - new site search, rss feeds, global headers and footers - to all library staff might be in order. I will work on a draft. If you have any suggestions, just post them here.

Jason

Web Team Agenda 01/19/05

1. Announcements: index page rollout
2. Plan and schedule for a redesign
3. FAQ pages presented by Jodi (time and preparation permitting)

Please take a look at our active and proposed projects - http://www.williams.edu/library/admin/projects/

Notes: Lori

*Any questions or suggestions can come to me.

Jason