preparing for launch!
You’ve been hearing about the Libraries’ website migration for quite a while now – and things are starting to happen fast! If you are on the CM Users list (and if you contribute content to the Libraries’ website, you should be), you have already started to hear about the process.
What’s happened so far:
- By now you should have put any outdated, unused, unfinished, or “test” pages into “Pending” status in the CM – and maybe you’ve even gotten bold and deleted some of them (if so, you get a gold star). If you still have pages you intend to delete, that’s OK too; it will be easy to delete them in the new site.
- We have migrated the content of all pages (except for class pages, pending pages, and the old collection pages) from the old CM into the new Drupal site.
What you need to do (or not do) now:
- Any edits or changes made after December 3 will need to be recreated in the new site. Therefore, please continue to make only necessary, urgent changes to your CM pages and hold off on any major new development until the new site is available.
- Very soon, we will “freeze” the old Content Manager so that most users will no longer be able to access it. We have identified a few users who have urgent updates to make on a regular basis – e.g. front page news items, staff directory updates, job postings, newly acquired or changed resources – and those users will be given special access to make those updates.
- If you have other emergency changes that need to be made, such as updates to library services or policies, please email comments@indiana.edu and we will assist you.
- Watch the CM Users list (soon to be the Drupal users list) for more information and updates!
The new Drupal site will not be available to our website users (students, faculty, etc.) until we (and you!) have had a chance to clean it up and make sure everything is working properly; see the timeline below for details on this process. Through the end of Spring semester 2014, everyone (patrons and library staff) will still use the old website, www.libraries.iub.edu.
Here’s the timeline:
- Soon – Content Manager is “frozen” for all but identified urgent updates
- December through early January: DRS works on content and structural cleanup in the new site
- Early January – Spring Break: staff logins available on new site; Drupal training for librarians & library staff; staff begins cleaning up content on new site and may begin creating new content on new site as needed.
- Spring Break: New (“beta”) site made publicly available via the old site. Students & faculty may access and use either new or old site.
- End of spring semester: cut-over. Old site is taken down and the new site becomes the Libraries’ official website.
Ways that DRS can help you:
- We have several temporary employees (ILS students) who will be available into the spring semester to help with cleanup and editing work on your pages.
- In consultation with Becky Wood, Anne will be publishing a Web Style Guide to help you make your web content work better, and to outline guidelines for specific content types.
- We will continue to stay in touch via this listserv. If any of your colleagues or student workers have web responsibilities, please check with them to make sure they are subscribed to the CM Users list!
If you have questions about this process, please talk to anyone in DRS. You can also email comments@indiana.edu or use the “Contact Us” link on this blog to send us a message. We know this is a huge job for everyone and we hope to make it as easy as possible!
Leave a Reply