Susanna Hall Collaborative Technology Project, Final Report IST611 - Information Technologies in Educational Organizations Professor Pam Berger

April 17, 2011

Creation of the Boston Public Schools Library & Media Services website http://bpslibraries.org/

Summary: Project and Project Team Amy Short, the Senior Director of Library and Media Services for the Boston Public Schools, is in her first year on the job and wants to create a website for the districts school libraries. I am acting as a website consultant and designer. We have been working together since November, when I initially approached Amy about the idea of collaborating and proposed a basic framework for organizing the information on the site into menu and sub-menu items. The basic site is now up, but still incomplete. We will continue to work on it this spring, so that we can unveil it before the end of the school year in June. This is a first website for us both.

Needs Assessment / Target Audiences For the past 3-5 years, the position of Director of the BPS Libraries has been vacant on-and-off, and there has never been a website (or listserv or email) through which to compile and communicate the key information that school librarians and paraprofessionals need to do their job well. The districts library policies have never been posted, nor have mission statements, budget information, district library news, professional standards, professional development opportunities, database and resource links, automation news, vendor links, etc. The BPS Library Director has never has a blog. This changes now :) Library staff: School administrators: Classroom teachers: Family members: contact info, centralized policies, AASL standards, etc. support and advocacy links; understanding of the roles and responsibilities of 21st century librarians in the citys K-12 schools how to collaborate with your school librarian reading with your child; library advocacy links

Goals and Learning Objectives Attend all monthly K-8 and 9-12 district school librarian meetings, September - June. Brainstorm and negotiate overall design of website--organize information in a user-friendly and easily navigable way (content is findable) through menus, sub-pages, and linked buttons. Research and decide upon the best web platform to meet our needs; design site; migrate blog. Write content in an accessible style, consider presenting PDFs using Scribd Figure out how to embed Google Translate as HTML widget so all visitors can access the site. Assist Amy with understanding technical details of administering the site (Wordpress dashboard, installing widgets, etc.) so she can run the site on her own beginning in September, 2011.

Technologies Used Our site is a free blog designed with Wordpress (http://wordpress.com/), using the versatile Twenty Ten theme. Wordpress blogs have the capability of becoming full websites (Content Management Systems) because users can add menu and sub-menu items as static pages and stick the blog into a menu tab. This free service offers the same administrative dashboard as wordpress.org (self-hosted) sites, but design elements are somewhat limited, since users cannot fiddle with the theme in the CSS code (font, font size, header size, plugins). For beginners and first sites, the free wordpress.com option is easiest (I have had a pretty steep learning curve while designing my first self-hosted site). The only costs associated with this website were the costs to purchase a domain name ($~12/ year) and to ensure that ads would not be posted on the site ($29 one-time fee). We chose Wordpress over Blogger because Blogger only allows a maximum of 10 static pages, whereas Wordpress has no limit (we have 33 pages!). I also have a strong bias towards Wordpress because of their amazing array of themes and their fabulous online support community. We chose a theme that allowed us: custom headers, custom background, custom menu, sidebar and footer widgets, and the option of adding full-width pages that do not display the sidebar. I used Photoshop to create the header image and web buttons.

Challenges Faced Amy and I hit a small scheduling roadblock in late March-early April because she was inundated with grant-writing deadlines, but we are now rolling again. During our April 7th meeting in Amys office, using a Boston Public Schools internet connection, our site was blocked by BPS filters, so we werent able to view the site on anything but our iPhones. This problem has since been resolved (Amy knows the person who controls the filters). Amy and I have different aesthetics, so we had to negotiate this delicate matter while choosing our sites theme and trying out different header images. The sheer amount of content here makes me nervous, and I keep wanting to propose that we set up a publishing schedule so the content gets up in time for a June release. So far, Amy is plugging away at adding the content, so no need to schedule unless motivation flags. Much of the content up as of this writing is in the form of links that are not yet annotated. I dont think Amy has time to annotate these links. I will propose to write brief, clear annotations, since it is a pet peeve of mine when websites list links without brief, clear annotations.

Results what went well: I love designing websites. I love collaborating and negotiating with Amy--she has a ton of great resources on her laptop that are just itching to get posted publicly, and she is dedicated, smart, and a hard worker. We keep each other accountable and motivated, and the work gets done (this is an independent project--not linked to a grant or a request by an administrator or board). I learned a ton by attending the K-8 and 9-12 librarian monthly meetings this year--not just in terms of my own professional development in this district, but in terms of really getting to know the districts librarians and their information needs. They are dying to get the info our site will provide. what you would have done differently: Perhaps if Amy and I had set a consistent monthly meeting day and time form the start, we would not have had a month in which scheduling and communication was just off.

 I like that the district has a few photographers on staff--if I had known this earlier, I would have requested a series of photos of district libraries (either with or without children, as policy dictates) so that they would be ready now to post as custom header images for individual pages on the site. We can likely get this done before or during September.

Reflection on the Experience I am excited to see how library staff, administrators, classroom teachers, and family members will respond to this site. I wonder if folks will use the comment functions and/or subscribe to the Directors Blog for news and updates. I wonder how we will unveil and market the site. I wonder how Amys blog will develop, and whether or not we will end up consolidating or removing certain pages as the site goes live and we examine the analytics to see which pages are being visited and which arent. Since I plan to work in the Boston Public Schools for my entire career, having a strong relationship with the library director will be crucial to my work. Ive got a good start thanks to this project. In coming years, web development and design will also continue to expand as new tools emerge, and my skills will need to keep up. I imagine one day, Amy and I will look back at this website and laugh at how old-fashioned it looks.

The Completed Project: http://bpslibraries.org/ Well, its not done yet. Here are some elements we will add over the coming months: add blog post categories add a tag cloud in the sidebar fix blogroll and links lists in sidebar keep trying out new headers until we find a non-busy one keep adding and annotating content add photos of district libraries keep working out kinks in understanding and using the Wordpress dashboard

Testimonial: Susanna Hall has been instrumental in getting the Boston Public Schools Library and Media Services website off the ground. I truly appreciated Susannas creativity, ability to listen to what I wanted for a product, and responsible work ethic throughout the entire process. When we first met to discuss the project, I had a general idea of what I wanted the website to contain. Susanna researched other similar websites and reported back with a long list of possible pages for the bpslibraries.org site. After we narrowed the list down to what I wanted to add to my site, Susanna sketched up a mock website on paper so I could get a visual of how the site would be organized. Susannas ability to approach this complicated website with logic and organization helped me see what the website could become. Since then, her work has turned that collaborative vision into reality; and I am thrilled with the result. What is truly special about Susanna is her ability to listen to what I envisioned for the website, combine that vision with her own creative ideas, and, based on that that collaborative effort, build a professional-looking website that will be an excellent tool for the entire school district. Susannas enthusiastic approach to this project, and to school libraries in general, is inspiring. --Amy Short, Director of Library and Media Services, Boston Public Schools