Whose Site Is It Anyway? The Web Editor’s Career l Getting A Job Job titles and descriptions l Managing The Job Institutional models l Being Supported Advice, guidance and training l Being A Professional Professional organisations

Getting A Job l Brief survey of job ads Wide range of job titles No real consensus of title Wide pay scales l Do the employers know what they want? ‘kitchen sink’ job descriptions l Do we have to define our own job descriptions for them?

Getting A Job l Titles ranged from Website managers Web officer l Could this be formalised, as a community, defining these roles? By generating a list of skills for each member of the team Or surveying current posts

Getting A Job l Roles to be found in PR, Computing Services, Libraries l Suffer from a feeling of institutional isolation l Solution We need to structure the teams so that they not affiliated to any existing structures

Getting A Job l Head of web team Someone who can wave the ‘big stick’ at university management Effective and powerful voice within the institution. l Putting learning on the agenda l Recommendations Survey of current web teams posts/ salary/ contracts etc...

Managing The Job l Who to work for? –Should be independent Not keen on placing them because of bias towards one section l Who holds the budget? –Should be a budget holder so they don’t have to go cap in hand

Managing The Job l Ideal team –Web editor (reporting to executive committee) heading up team Designers Support (check HTML write/read English) Have a team of information providers in schools/depts (responsible for maintenance) but editor should be proactive in getting content.

Managing The Job l Who are the clients –Not just working to please one section/dept –Meeting the needs of the clients of the university –Importance of what the clients need

Managing The Job l Trying to serve all our masters with one site. l Recommendations Cash incentives for surveys Lay down the structure of teams l Observation Talk to library people about how people use information services

Managing The Job l Get together with people in the university to decide what you need to do, break down into manageable chunks and get some quick wins. l Strategy Be integral. You should have a voice in the main University business.

Being Supported l Problem Structure of institution such that don’t fit in and often out on a limb without any support structures l Solution The way you decide to develop the web and where it’s placed would help solve other problems (i.e. integrating into publicity) Needs management who knows about the particular needs of the job Setting up professional groups that deal with standards

Being Supported l Problem A lack of specific training [different training for each role (designer, editor etc)] l Solution National accreditation Regional groups Mailing lists Newsgroups Exchanging ideas with a receptive audience

Being Supported l Problem Status position of senior staff to the web people is poor because of a lack of knowledge l Solutions Management needs to know and understand and make sure the you’re aligned with the key business of the University Senior managers need to approach HoDs to impress upon their staff

Being Supported l The Web is a part of all university strategies l Develop measures of success (if possible!) Useful for information management to keep this data How useful something is –like putting up basic contact details and see how that’s changed people a few months later l Treat people that you’re working with as your internal market Need to sell yourself and your services

Being A Professional l What to professional bodies to Sets standards and promotes them Creating generic job specs and skills sets for membership Define what the community does and raises the awareness of the post [raising awareness of members capabilities/skills and importance] Disseminates special interest groups/information about events/ professional qualifications (CPD)

Being A Professional l What to professional bodies to Provide a sense of a wider community Personal development New developments Salaries survey/trends in the area/discounts for services. Defining/Publicising the community/Current Awareness/Professional Development/Special Interest Groups.

Being A Professional l Who they are USA based global organisations (very technical groups) –Useful for a UK body to affiliate to UK bodies something like the Institute for Information Sciences talking to the libraries about a differently named organisations Other bodies exist –Computing, Marketing/PR

Being A Professional l What do we want Regional groups (sound people out) Distance learning courses CPD/Accreditation Current awareness of new services and peoples experiences of trying them Outside expertise Special interest groups Letters after name (but they offer so much more) l Professional qualifications could cut across confusing job titles