Post on 18-Dec-2015
Delivering Individualized Library Content: Portals & The Future of
Library Web SitesTom Ipri
Media Services LibrarianConnelly LibraryPhiladelphia, PAipri@lasalle.edu
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
La Salle University
• Founded in 1863• Philadelphia, PA• 6200 students• Main campus and 2
satellites
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Connelly Library
• 9 Full time librarians• 1 Part-time at satellite• No dedicated Web
person• No dedicated Portal
person
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
mylasalle
• Luminis/Campus Pipeline
• University Wide
• Live Summer 2003
• Cradle to Grave
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Why Library Services in mylasalle?
• The largest source of information on campus
• Best opportunity to segment information from a vast collection and direct it to specific populations
• Only way to get email
• Registration, housing, grades
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Brief History
• On development committee
• Ensure library presence
• Library “tab”
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
First Version
• Basically a “dumbed-down” version of home page
• Not taking advantage of potential
• Director of Portal Communications hired 2004
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Second Version
• This time it’s personal
• Campus and Targeted Announcements
• myConnellyLibrary
• myResources
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
myResources
• Library subject guide +
• Resources from departments– Forms, procedures, job ads, etc.
• Education, Social Work, Grad Psych, SLH
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
New Developments
• Assignment Calculator
• Use of RSS feeds
• Federated search
• WebPac Pro
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
RSS Feeds
• Simple XML code
• Library news
• Databases
• Electronic Journals
• Library Links
• Basically anything
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Snags
• Director of Portal Communication leaves– Change of priorities– Uncertain future
• New Web team– PHP/MySQL– Code to read database output
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Back on Track
• A lot of bits and pieces– Adding hand-coded & RSS channels– Converting database info to feeds
• Can be aggregated on one “Tab”
• Tab – channels – tab
• Marketing
• Training
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
What’s Next
• Federated search
• SSO for databases
• WebPAC Pro– Circulation info in channel
• More use of CSS
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Is it a mash-up?
• Darlene Fichter– Web site or web application that uses context
from one or more sources to create a completely new service
– Building blocks
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Portals and Library 2.0
• Paul Miller– Push the library everywhere– Disaggregate library systems– Liberate the data– Get the data to the user, not the user to the
data
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Impact
• Rethinking library services with the portal in mind
• Portal is designed to be dynamic and customizable
• Bring information closer to user
• Portal roles
Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals
Impact
• Not a huge entity parsed into smaller bits
• But smaller bits that are greater than the whole
• Don’t add up to one thing, but different things for different people
• Future of library web sites?