Creating State Information Sites: A Tale of Technology & Collaboration

NLE outreach meeting with newly created Office of State Support “administers financial assistance to state and local education agencies.” State Program Officers need to keep track of education by state The Problem: Need for State Level Information

NLE held a follow-up meeting to learn more about the needs of clients in the Office of State Support State Program Officers expressed the need for: A dependable news source Contacts at state education agencies State-specific education data Up-to-date state education legislation Step 1: Assess Client Needs

In partnership with the Office of State Support, the Library would develop State Information Sites 52 states, including District of Columbia and Puerto Rico Focus on sustainability Information not displayed directly on sites to avoid the need for constant updates of contact and legislative information Links to webpages Updated by responsible Sites hosted on Library’s SharePoint intranet site NLE to develop information architecture and suggest useful sources based on client feedback Sites maintained by NLE staff Step 2: Develop a Solution

Step 3: Create a Prototype Reference Librarians brainstormed to identify categories to be included on each state site: Local agencies & contacts Legislatures & legislation Data Federal sources State sources Other Sources Education Research on OSS priority topics Persistent search links to results in EBSCO-hosted databases News RSS feeds from Education Week & Newsdesk

Step 3: The Prototype, continued Librarians made key decisions about information architecture Page layout Include image of state flag for colorful visual Landing page with United States map and list of states Links to sites updated by their owners, cutting down on maintenance Make sites useful for all Department of Education offices Initial mockup of template in Microsoft Word Met with Office of State Support to get feedback: enthusiastic response

Step 4: Partner with SharePoint Team Presented Microsoft Word mockup: could site be recreated in SharePoint, including RSS feeds? SharePoint Team says YES! Each category to be a web part RSS feeds may be incorporated Map on state landing page SharePoint Team to create landing page, each state page, and web parts Library Team to enter content

Step 5: Curate Content Four Reference Librarians divided up research the 52 state assignments Researched and collected relevant state-specific links for each category Searched databases and saved persistent search links for topical research on EBSCO-hosted databases Created RSS feeds for state-level news in Newsdesk Saved content in Microsoft Word files for later data entry into SharePoint

Step 6: Solicit Feedback Meetings with OSS leadership and State Program Officers Staff explored sites on laptops during the meeting and provided feedback on additional useful sites Staff gave feedback in online survey Link to survey was included on each mock-up site Suggested adding data from the U.S. Census Bureau and contacts in state education associations and unions

Step 7: Enter Data SharePoint Team developed individual state sites and web parts Library Team entered links using SharePoint forms Created Tiny URLs for longer links using

Step 8: Soft Launch & Quality Control SharePoint Team makes state sites viewable, but not linked from Library’s intranet site. Librarians and 2 Office of State Support staff conduct quality control to ensure: Pages display properly Links work RSS feeds display properly There are no typos

Step 9: Hard Launch Navigation to State Sites added to the Library’s intranet page.

Step 9: Hard Launch, continued State Information Site landing page Select state from map or list Popular resources Description

Step 9: Hard Launch, continued State Sites useable for everyone in the Department

Step 10: Spreading the Word Meeting with all State Program Officers after soft launch Presentation Scavenger hunt Meeting to demonstrate sites to high-level staff, including then Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Marketing Departmental announcements Signage in the Library Mention in every Library outreach presentation Cross-selling at Reference Desk

Step 10: Spreading the Word, continued Library signage

Anatomy of a State Site 1 State Flag

Anatomy of a State Site 2 Education contacts (updated by state agencies)

Anatomy of a State Site 3 Research and studies on education from or about the state

Anatomy of a State Site 4 State education associations offer additional points of view on education developments

Anatomy of a State Site 5 State Program Officers can easily follow state education legislation

Anatomy of a State Site 6 Links directly to state-specific data, noting where direct state links are not available.

Anatomy of a State Site 7 RSS News Feeds Education Week Newsdesk