Out with November, In with December

It's hard to believe that I am turning my calendar over for the last time in 2009. It's probably too early to be thinking about 2010 resolutions when Santa's visit is coming upon us soon.......

As for holiday wishes, we will soon be beta-launching the website. We've worked on a number of issues with formatting the website for all browsers. You would not think this is such a big deal unless you're working at it from the back-end! We have placed the format icon on the materials for ease of use and have uploaded most of the item covers for a nice display of the collection. From the website you can almost feel like you're right in the library stacks! We continue to load and tweak content - like dusting before company comes over.

Back to Monday Updating!

Where was I last week? We were all hands on keyboards as work continues on the new website. Things that have been crossed off the list of to do's are the shopping cart. We continue to import images for our items and records that have been added to the catalog. Troubleshooting continues with every aspect of the site - from search to formatting to technical issues.

Please check back next Monday to see when we might be beta-launching the site! In the meantime, may you enjoy your Thanksgiving and all of the festivities involved.

Wednesday update

here's to egg on my face - it seems to be the norm with me any more.......

the work continues on polishing the site to a sheen or to at least a nice glow. we continue to fix bugs and test and fix bugs and test and work on content and revise and input more data and test and generally do all of the "moving in" things that one does with a new website. i'm happy to report that we're feeling closer and closer. this week's breakthrough occurred with the cart working in a more than asked-for fashion - yea john with the magic fingers!

stay tuned to next monday's post (really, i can remember to post on mondays!) for word on our soft launch.

What ... another Tuesday post?

It seems to be the habit of posting on Tuesday instead of my regular Monday and the apology sounds like a broken record.....with the same reason as last week's post.

Since the move inhouse, we've been putting up pictures and arranging the furniture ~ so to speak. We continue to input content, test and work on bugs and fixes. Stay tuned as we release the site to you ~ very soon! You will see a story on the website's homepage linking you to the new site. Thanks for your patience!

In the meantime, getting your Thanksgiving plans together? Have a favorite Thanksgiving recipe or website? Share here!

We've Moved In!

After the weeks of being almost there, almost there ~ the database has arrived inhouse. It's sitting on our server getting quite the workout and lots of attention!

We now earnestly roll up our sleeves and begin testing the searches. We input content to see how to do this and how it presents on the site. Among the myriad of things we will need to do is to continue to enter content and check forms and ensure the functions are there before we offer a public peek to you all. Kudos to those of you who continue to read, follow and have immeasurable patience as we go thru this process.

Apologies for the delay in posting this. Monday started off with a bang in terms of things to do for the new website and this blogger never caught up to post til now.

of cider and panda costumes......

tis the season for lots of fall-related recipes ~ hot apple cider, pumpkin in pies or in soups or even in breads and making costumes. yes i still love making costumes even if i have to stuff my kids into them!

besides the leaves swirling and rattling in the streets, we are into the next phase of website work. we've been working our way towards import and marrying the information together into one happy union. as with any and every union, there are pitfalls and ours is no exception. we began testing friday and will use these initial tests as a springboard to moving further down the evolutionary scale of launch.

stay tuned - in the meantime enjoy the weather. you've got to love colorado where you can have hot and cold all in the same week!

Have you found a "sweet spot"?

From the article in Harvard Business Review called Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time* by Tony Schwartz, it discussed the need to maintain one's energy in order to perform optimally. We tend to get sucked up into long hours and long projects. Did you know that our bodies require a break every 90-120 minutes in order to recharge? Look up "ultradian rhythms" or read the article....... It is a good reminder of "things I need to do better" such as checking email less often (no, the world will not fall apart if I don't respond more quickly!) and making conscious decisions on where we want to spend our time and making changes accordingly.

One of the things that hit me in this article was the term "sweet spot" - and not in tennis, either..... it is "feeling effective, effortlessly absorbed, inspired, and fulfilled." The program cited in the article is measuring employee's sweet spots and if they had actually experienced this. I thought back on my work and could actually think of one experience where I hit a "sweet spot" - yea! and even more in my home life (double yea!). But ~ stretching this to the online world ~ wouldn't you think there are websites so good you do not have to put forth extra effort to find what you were looking for? (And it only took me the second paragraph to get to the point!) So here's the challenge - name your "sweet spot" websites ~

P.S. on website work - the birds continue to migrate and so does our data.....

*Following this link will require you to enter your Arapahoe Library District card number in order to access it from our database.