1. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Putting it All Together: Designing a Library Website using Project Management Techniques Katherine E. Pitcher Reference/Instruction & Web Development Librarian Milne Library SUNY Geneseo Geneseo, New York

2. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Abstract Using project management techniques to organize and plan a large-scale redesign of their library website. The presenter will show how these techniques were used to manage a complex web project and how project planning and workflow can be used effectively in a library setting.

3. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 2003-2004 Stats Public liberal arts college 5550 students (5307 undergrads) Faculty-to-Student Ratio: 18.79:1 Computer-to-Student Ratio: 1:6 40.4 % admission rate SUNY Geneseo

4. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Total space: 70, 591 square feet Annual visitors: 550,396 Hours open per week: 106 Print resources: 516,700 Current database subscriptions: 98 Computer workstations: 90 Laptops: 185 Multimedia classrooms: 4 Staff members: 32 Milne Library

5. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Background Milne Library website originally created in 1995 Redesigned in 1999/2000 Minor revisions and updates periodically No web development services or team to oversee site No web librarian

6. 1999 version

7. 2005 version

8. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Spring of 2005 Reference ~10 hrs per week Instruction ~ 20-25 classes a semester Government documents Supervising 1 clerk and 2 student workers Webmaster for special projects Collection development Another hat??

9. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 How to do it all? (you can’t!) 1.Prioritize 2.May have to give up something (“delegate”) 3.Ask for resources (“communicate what you need”) 4. Know your limits 5. Use project management techniques to manage workflow

10. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 What is project management? The planning, organizing, scheduling, leading, communicating, and controlling of work activities to achieve a pre-defined outcome on time and within budget

11. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 What is a project manager? A Project Manager controls the progress of the project against any detrimental influences on the time, cost, and quality involved in regard to the client, the place of work, market forces, other external influences, and the development team

12. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 A good project manager is… Communicator Troubleshooter & problem-solver Able to take responsibility Knowledgeable about: Working practices Technical details

13. Web Development Librarians and Library Staff Students Faculty Staff Alumni Community Other Libraries Information Technology Administration

14. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Find out what resources you need Write clear objectives Once you have your outcomes, you then can plan what resources need to be acquired to get the job done What are your requirements?

15. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Find out who can do it Get your team in place: Programmer Production Designer/Graphic Artist Content manager Project manager

16. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Find out how you are going to do it Talk to your people Schedule Create a project plan Budget

17. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Milne Library Web Project Advisory committee formed by director 3 librarians, 3 professional staff Chaired by Project manager Oversee redesign of site as well as make policy recommendations to Library Management team Ongoing library team

18. Web Project Manager Programming Mark Design & HTML Production Bonnie Multimedia Steve Content Rich/Librarians

19. Web Team

20. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Project Management Cycle Define Plan Launch Manage Close

21. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Defined project method Checklist Framework Accountability Progress reporting Standards Control mechanism “Big Picture”

22. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Development 4 phases of workflow Each have their own stages and deliverables

23. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Phase I Preproduction Project clarification Solution definition Project specification

24. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Stage One Project Clarification Why? of project planning Discovery stage Gather information Ask questions of your stakeholders Analyze other library websites Identify needs Determine overall goals & objectives (write these down in a document!)

25. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Stage Two Solution definition How? of project planning What requirements must you meet?

26. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Stage Three Project specification What? of project planning what you have to deliver how you are going to do it with what resources by when

27. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Project Communication Write your communication brief Email Listserv Project website or blog Regular updates to your stakeholders Meeting minutes

28. Project blog

29. Email

30. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Phase II Production Content Design and construction Testing and launch

31. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Stage Four Content Form a separate subcommittee to deal with content Do a content inventory of existing content on website (what do you want to keep? discard?) Develop a content delivery plan

32. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Stage Five Design and construction Form separate subcommittees to deal with design and functionality issues Prototyping Recommendations sent to all librarians for comment & feedback Works closely with content subcommittee

33. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Stage Six Testing Develop a quality control plan “bug-tracking” Designate someone, but this may fall to project manager QC Cycle

34. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Quality Control Cycle Tester tests website Tester finds error Tester reports error Error fixed

35. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Stage Six Launch Develop plan for launch day: What files need to be moved? How are you launching? When are you launching? Who needs to be notified?

36. Launch Day

37. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Phase III Maintenance Maintenance Ongoing and eternal

38. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Stage Seven Maintenance Develop a maintenance plan Who will be responsible for changes and updates? When & how often will it be updated? How will changes be made? What areas of the website need maintaining?

39. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Phase IV Evaluation Review and evaluation Ongoing assessment Use a survey tool to gather feedback from users Conduct usability testing

40. Stage Eight Review and Evaluation

41. Ongoing assessment

42. Brick & Click: An Academic Library Symposium November 3, 2006 Dos and Don’ts Do make sure you have key players involved Don’t set up unnecessary meetings “just” to have them Do communicate with your team members regularly and follow-up after meetings Don’t forget to get buy-in from stakeholders (administration, librarians, staff, etc.) Do ask questions!

43. New Milne Library Website

44. Library School Reunion Website

45. Recommended Resources: Friedlein, Ashley. Web Project Management: delivering successful commercial web sites. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2001. Goto, Kelly and Emily Cotler. Web Redesign 2.0: workflow that works. Berkeley, CA: New Riders Press, 2005.

46. Contact Me: Katherine E. Pitcher Reference/Instruction & Web Development Librarian SUNY Geneseo Milne Library, Room 201a 1 College Circle Geneseo, New York 14454 (585) 245-5064 pitcher@geneseo.edu http://www.geneseo.edu/~pitcher