Miscellany

I'm late, I'm late! A holiday on Monday can just throw off your whole schedule ~ including blogging weekly. Sorry for the delay. An update to website work:

• finalizing search results pages


• inputting forms ~ this is great stuff for us on the back end, believe me!


• more training on inputting content on the back end


• continued "construction" of the back end database to meet our needs

Besides website work, I thought I'd follow up with sweetsearch.com and its search engine. I used it the other day when staffing the AskColorado virtual reference "desk." Not finding what I wanted out of my Google results, I thought of sweetsearch and switched. I was impressed with their results and liked the hits returned. Some were the same as what Google found; others were more on target and directed. Now I wish I could remember a specific example to share but one does not come to mind. Suffice it to say that I will be returning to sweetsearch when I need more directed answers to questions. Google will continue to be good for a more general search. They say it takes doing something seven times before it becomes a habit ~ let's see if I can remember to use another search engine the next time I need extra help! What are your favorite search engines? Why?

A Sense of Accomplishment

Today was spent at our soon to be opened May Library! I shelved some fiction titles, some children's movies and music and ended up alphabetizing the Jazz and Latin music collections. Whew! Do my muscles feel it - the bending and lifting, the fingers moving to and fro, the brain constantly trying to remember the alphabet! I left with some muscle relief medication and also a huge sense of accomplishment - the term about some village to create something big certainly applies here.

Conversely, the website does not provide this same sense of physicial-ness but the hope is the same in that you will want to browse the collection and check items out that are of interest to you.

The countdown to the opening of the May Library is 13 days ~ the website more like 2nd quarter. Stay tuned and thx for your continued patience!

Celebrating groundhogs and new search engines!

Who said this blog had to be constructive all the time? Today's post comes flying from the fingers with what's at the tip of my fingertips. It is Groundhog Day and we'll just have to see if this burrowing creature wishes us spring or more winter.

In the meantime, to completely mash two different topics together, i thought i'd blog about a new search engine called Sweet Search. Created by professionals to give you what's relevant, they're calling themselves a more selective search engine. I'm going to try running various searches on it to see how this tests out against my habit of Googling - let me know what you think!

Lastly, to try to stay relevant to blogging about website updates, here are some of the things being worked on:

• creating forms
• deciding content on the Business & Research page
• functioning of the Staff Picks when you click on "From: name"

The Wheels Keep Spinning

Is this blog starting to sound like it's in a rut or is it just the writer? There's plenty going on - my wheels are definitely in a fast rpm but to report out the minutia would make your eyes glaze over. Suffice it to say that there are more pages being finalized with what goes where - the topic last week was on the Search Results page and what presents both in words {like how you might want to further limit your search} and in graphics {how you want to see your results presented}.

In the meantime, I was checking out other library websites (yes, this is what i do for fun!).... and found two which are doing nifty things. One, in our own backyard, is the Denver Public Library. They have "preview new catalog" on their homepage - check it out and blog your comments here! Do you like bookmarking pages? Tagging? Cool things you can do here now.

The other library is London Public - click on their "catalogue" and try a search on knitting to see the results - do you like it?

I'm off to conquer my website envy now - looking forward to your observations!

The Weekly Update

This week's update feels so......minor....in the larger picture of the Presidential Inauguration that just happened this morning. With technology being so convenient I was able to Tivo (yes, it is a recognized verb!) the event so that I can watch it tonight.

In the meantime, work on the website must go on - inauguration or not. We have been very happy to get our hands into the back end of the database which will run the website. To start to have "navigational controls" means we're steps closer than we were before! Not how items look on the page but how long they live there, the convenience of taking them down on some calendar basis and of easily inputting content regularly which is relevant and eye catching - these are the concerns that occupy our time now.

My question of the week begs the question ~ did you watch the inauguration? For any reasons in particular ~ the President's inaugural address, the crowds, the general sense of watching history take place? Log your input here!

Of Snow and Website Work

I'm trying very hard not to make this post a gloomy one, just because i spent half the day in the car due to the unexpected amt of snow we received. To try to remain upbeat, i will offer that my yard is much happier with the precipitation than i am .......

Being in the car for a long period of time can either drive you bonkers or drive you to come up with creative blog entries..... You can tell me if i've lost it, either way. My analogy of the day is that our website work is like driving to work when the snowplows haven't been out. It's slow going and it can be painful at times! The good news is that you eventually reach your destination. In our case, we are slowly progressing through website pages, going thru the minutia of what presents on the page and how this click works. Our latest foray has been on the search results page - a rather important page in the whole scheme of things. We are redefining the presentation of the search result page so that you see the most relevant on top of the page. The rest of the search result will present list style with an option to show cover style (did i hear you say "wow!"?). One of the new features we are working on is the presentation of limiters - such as books only or 2008 only. Like the snowplows, this work is invisible but know that we are working hard!

Now that I'm not behind the wheel and have had my mandatory coffee, I'm feeling much better ~ let it snow!

Website Update

Work continues on the website - even though you haven't seen newly designed pages in awhile. There are more in progress but are still in the rough stages! At this point, we are finalizing most of the design work while coding continues to build the back end and make it come to fruition.

Now that 2009 is upon us, we are busily conceiving how pages will function such as the Business & Research area. This is the primary area in which you will access the research databases. We also hope to provide more in-depth research tools here to assist you. We are also strapping on the thinking caps to figure out how to bring subject headings to the fore and make the more friendly than to just librarians!

Besides building the website, you will also have the opportunity to see two new facilities open this year. What a busy year for ALD! Thx for your continued support in the form of usage and comments regarding our progress. It is much appreciated.