Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
Everyone, Thank you so much for the volume and helpfulness of the replies. There are so many individual talking points in them! But, if I were to summarize, it seems that there is agreement that library website liberty is the ideal. Libguides 2.0 is certainly a possibility. I tried setting up the site in 1.0 but it just wasn't there. Once we're migrated I will likely build a prototype just to see how it works. Edward, I agree that perhaps the most important thing is campus recognition that the library website is a unique and special sort of site. We had that understanding in the past. It remains to be seen how it's going to be for us now. It very well may work out well without any need for (library website) secessionist drama. Thanks again to everyone. It was very edifying and useful to hear about so many different types of setups. It's reassuring :) Warm regards, Brad On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 9:48 AM, Edward M. Corrado ecorr...@ecorrado.us wrote: At different jobs I have had this has been done this differently, but right now our main Website is hosted by our campus Communications Marketing department (not campus IT although they do run the hardware from what I understand) using their CMS (OmniUpdate). This is a recent change (a little over a year now) for us. Previously, we have had our own Website. This switch has been a positive experience for us. The key, I think, is that the people that are in charge of the Web site understand that the Libraries have specific needs and they have been willing to work with us to make sure the site works for our patrons. Not only do we not have to worry about maintaining the server and what to do if it goes down at 1:00 am, CM has provided quality support and helped with design services. We did have to give up some control over some of the design elements including color, header, and footer. However, these are relatively minor and makes our Web presence more cohesive with the rest of the University. We did not give up any control of content. We do run other Web servers, however, for specific LAMP applications and our blog because that is not possible within OmniUpdate. Campus IT also runs some servers for us as do some external cloud providers - we do things differently on a case-by-case basis. Basically, I think going with a campus-wide CMS solution is good, but only if the people in charge are willing and able to work with the library and the library is willing to work with the people operating the CMS. This has been the case here so we have been successful. Edward On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Brad Coffield bcoffield.libr...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, I would love to hear from people about what sort of setup they have regarding linkage/collaboration/constrictions/freedom regarding campus-wide IT practices and CMS usage and the library website. Some history: For a very long time our library ran its own server and its own website, completely independent of campus-wide concerns (save for occasional requests for help from IT with server issues). A few years ago the server began to reach EOL and it was determined that we couldn't afford to get another. Also around the same time it was deemed that the library website needed a complete re-do. I was tapped to do that re-do. During that process the Marketing dept got involved and it was agreed upon that the library's general look should be aligned with the university's public site (which I think was a good idea). Then it was determined that because of that decision that the simplest way to achieve it was to put us inside their existing CMS which was already setup etc etc. Part of the problem is that the existing CMS is Ektron... The revised library site went live in Ektron 2 years ago. My marketing contact was a massive help in getting it live and training me in ektron etc. He is now no longer with the university and we are in the middle of a transition period. My inclination and desire is to regain some level of independence wherein we collaborate with IT in getting our own server space on their servers but are not tied to their decisions regarding CMS, how and when to go mobile-friendly, etc. Our site is still not fully, truly what it should be because of limitations with Ektron and I would like to get out of it. I would like to have the option to either run a CMS of my choice or go CMS-less (since I'm the only editor). I fear that the site will be held back from being able to do the things that it needs to do. I'm hoping that I can get some responses from you all that way I can informally say of x libraries that responded y of them are not firmly tied to IT. (or something to that effect) I'm also very curious to read responses because I'm sure they will be educational and help me to make our site better. THE QUESTION: What kind of setup does your library have regarding servers, IT dept
Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
At different jobs I have had this has been done this differently, but right now our main Website is hosted by our campus Communications Marketing department (not campus IT although they do run the hardware from what I understand) using their CMS (OmniUpdate). This is a recent change (a little over a year now) for us. Previously, we have had our own Website. This switch has been a positive experience for us. The key, I think, is that the people that are in charge of the Web site understand that the Libraries have specific needs and they have been willing to work with us to make sure the site works for our patrons. Not only do we not have to worry about maintaining the server and what to do if it goes down at 1:00 am, CM has provided quality support and helped with design services. We did have to give up some control over some of the design elements including color, header, and footer. However, these are relatively minor and makes our Web presence more cohesive with the rest of the University. We did not give up any control of content. We do run other Web servers, however, for specific LAMP applications and our blog because that is not possible within OmniUpdate. Campus IT also runs some servers for us as do some external cloud providers - we do things differently on a case-by-case basis. Basically, I think going with a campus-wide CMS solution is good, but only if the people in charge are willing and able to work with the library and the library is willing to work with the people operating the CMS. This has been the case here so we have been successful. Edward On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Brad Coffield bcoffield.libr...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, I would love to hear from people about what sort of setup they have regarding linkage/collaboration/constrictions/freedom regarding campus-wide IT practices and CMS usage and the library website. Some history: For a very long time our library ran its own server and its own website, completely independent of campus-wide concerns (save for occasional requests for help from IT with server issues). A few years ago the server began to reach EOL and it was determined that we couldn't afford to get another. Also around the same time it was deemed that the library website needed a complete re-do. I was tapped to do that re-do. During that process the Marketing dept got involved and it was agreed upon that the library's general look should be aligned with the university's public site (which I think was a good idea). Then it was determined that because of that decision that the simplest way to achieve it was to put us inside their existing CMS which was already setup etc etc. Part of the problem is that the existing CMS is Ektron... The revised library site went live in Ektron 2 years ago. My marketing contact was a massive help in getting it live and training me in ektron etc. He is now no longer with the university and we are in the middle of a transition period. My inclination and desire is to regain some level of independence wherein we collaborate with IT in getting our own server space on their servers but are not tied to their decisions regarding CMS, how and when to go mobile-friendly, etc. Our site is still not fully, truly what it should be because of limitations with Ektron and I would like to get out of it. I would like to have the option to either run a CMS of my choice or go CMS-less (since I'm the only editor). I fear that the site will be held back from being able to do the things that it needs to do. I'm hoping that I can get some responses from you all that way I can informally say of x libraries that responded y of them are not firmly tied to IT. (or something to that effect) I'm also very curious to read responses because I'm sure they will be educational and help me to make our site better. THE QUESTION: What kind of setup does your library have regarding servers, IT dept collaboration, CMS restrictions, anything else? I imagine that there are many unique situations. Any input you're willing to provide will be very welcome and useful. Thank you! Warm regards, Brad -- Brad Coffield, MLIS Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis University 814-472-3315 bcoffi...@francis.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
Hi Brad, My current workplace is set up in the campus CMS, Umbraco. It is very limiting in what we can do (can't use widgets without permission), and time-consuming to make edits. Apparently the state purchased another CMS, and no other options will be available. I can't speak for what the new CMS will be like, and how much freedom we will have with it (I'm not on that committee), but I can say that the current CMS is not good for the library. Hannah On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Brad Coffield bcoffield.libr...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, I would love to hear from people about what sort of setup they have regarding linkage/collaboration/constrictions/freedom regarding campus-wide IT practices and CMS usage and the library website. Some history: For a very long time our library ran its own server and its own website, completely independent of campus-wide concerns (save for occasional requests for help from IT with server issues). A few years ago the server began to reach EOL and it was determined that we couldn't afford to get another. Also around the same time it was deemed that the library website needed a complete re-do. I was tapped to do that re-do. During that process the Marketing dept got involved and it was agreed upon that the library's general look should be aligned with the university's public site (which I think was a good idea). Then it was determined that because of that decision that the simplest way to achieve it was to put us inside their existing CMS which was already setup etc etc. Part of the problem is that the existing CMS is Ektron... The revised library site went live in Ektron 2 years ago. My marketing contact was a massive help in getting it live and training me in ektron etc. He is now no longer with the university and we are in the middle of a transition period. My inclination and desire is to regain some level of independence wherein we collaborate with IT in getting our own server space on their servers but are not tied to their decisions regarding CMS, how and when to go mobile-friendly, etc. Our site is still not fully, truly what it should be because of limitations with Ektron and I would like to get out of it. I would like to have the option to either run a CMS of my choice or go CMS-less (since I'm the only editor). I fear that the site will be held back from being able to do the things that it needs to do. I'm hoping that I can get some responses from you all that way I can informally say of x libraries that responded y of them are not firmly tied to IT. (or something to that effect) I'm also very curious to read responses because I'm sure they will be educational and help me to make our site better. THE QUESTION: What kind of setup does your library have regarding servers, IT dept collaboration, CMS restrictions, anything else? I imagine that there are many unique situations. Any input you're willing to provide will be very welcome and useful. Thank you! Warm regards, Brad -- Brad Coffield, MLIS Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis University 814-472-3315 bcoffi...@francis.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
Hello, I've worked for four different colleges and two of them used Sharepoint and allowed one person from each department to have minimal editing privileges. Those edits had to be approved before being published. We were allowed server space at the other institution and even though the melting department there had their hands in everything, they never thought about the Library's website. All four places complained about how restricted the library was in controlling its own content and all four library eventually used google sites and Springshare's Libguides to obviate the need for IT or anyone else to control the library's content. I think that is the best option. All you have to do is have a basic library website with a links to the guides or google sites. Custom URLs and institutional look and feel are ideal though. Thanks Cornel Darden Jr. MSLIS Sent from my iPhone On Sep 2, 2014, at 11:32 AM, Hannah Co hanna...@uw.edu wrote: Hi Brad, My current workplace is set up in the campus CMS, Umbraco. It is very limiting in what we can do (can't use widgets without permission), and time-consuming to make edits. Apparently the state purchased another CMS, and no other options will be available. I can't speak for what the new CMS will be like, and how much freedom we will have with it (I'm not on that committee), but I can say that the current CMS is not good for the library. Hannah On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Brad Coffield bcoffield.libr...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, I would love to hear from people about what sort of setup they have regarding linkage/collaboration/constrictions/freedom regarding campus-wide IT practices and CMS usage and the library website. Some history: For a very long time our library ran its own server and its own website, completely independent of campus-wide concerns (save for occasional requests for help from IT with server issues). A few years ago the server began to reach EOL and it was determined that we couldn't afford to get another. Also around the same time it was deemed that the library website needed a complete re-do. I was tapped to do that re-do. During that process the Marketing dept got involved and it was agreed upon that the library's general look should be aligned with the university's public site (which I think was a good idea). Then it was determined that because of that decision that the simplest way to achieve it was to put us inside their existing CMS which was already setup etc etc. Part of the problem is that the existing CMS is Ektron... The revised library site went live in Ektron 2 years ago. My marketing contact was a massive help in getting it live and training me in ektron etc. He is now no longer with the university and we are in the middle of a transition period. My inclination and desire is to regain some level of independence wherein we collaborate with IT in getting our own server space on their servers but are not tied to their decisions regarding CMS, how and when to go mobile-friendly, etc. Our site is still not fully, truly what it should be because of limitations with Ektron and I would like to get out of it. I would like to have the option to either run a CMS of my choice or go CMS-less (since I'm the only editor). I fear that the site will be held back from being able to do the things that it needs to do. I'm hoping that I can get some responses from you all that way I can informally say of x libraries that responded y of them are not firmly tied to IT. (or something to that effect) I'm also very curious to read responses because I'm sure they will be educational and help me to make our site better. THE QUESTION: What kind of setup does your library have regarding servers, IT dept collaboration, CMS restrictions, anything else? I imagine that there are many unique situations. Any input you're willing to provide will be very welcome and useful. Thank you! Warm regards, Brad -- Brad Coffield, MLIS Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis University 814-472-3315 bcoffi...@francis.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
Brad, The situation here was very similar to yours. The library had its own web server for many years. After the previous library IT manager retired (and before I was hired to replace him), it was decided that all the library servers would be virtualized and live in the infrastructure provided by campus IT. Before I started, the plan was tentatively to merge the library website with the campus website, which uses Adobe Contribute and Coldfusion (not fun). At the same time, the library had been planning internally to redesign its website for years and to implement Drupal. We wanted more access to the web server to do more complex stuff than static web pages. When I resisted moving to the campus website, we were told that the library would not be able to have its own server for our website because it would be a security problem for us to have full OS-level access to a server that lives in the infrastructure of campus IT. We ended up outsourcing and renting a virtual server from Linode, and campus IT agreed to point the library subdomain to that server. In the theoretical future where the website is 100% finished and feature-complete (read: never), we will create a design spec fully documenting what we need and how to manage it at the OS level, and we will move back to an on-campus server. There was definitely tension between the library and the campus IT department throughout this whole process, although it remained very civil. In part, we were able to pull this off because there were some major personnel changes going on in the IT department, and they didn't have the time to devote to figuring out an approach that they better preferred. (As a side note, I ended up making an executive decision to drop Drupal because it was causing way more problems than it was fixing, but that is another story.) Josh Welker James C. Kirkpatrick Library University of Central Missouri -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Brad Coffield Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2014 10:40 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty Hi all, I would love to hear from people about what sort of setup they have regarding linkage/collaboration/constrictions/freedom regarding campus-wide IT practices and CMS usage and the library website. Some history: For a very long time our library ran its own server and its own website, completely independent of campus-wide concerns (save for occasional requests for help from IT with server issues). A few years ago the server began to reach EOL and it was determined that we couldn't afford to get another. Also around the same time it was deemed that the library website needed a complete re-do. I was tapped to do that re-do. During that process the Marketing dept got involved and it was agreed upon that the library's general look should be aligned with the university's public site (which I think was a good idea). Then it was determined that because of that decision that the simplest way to achieve it was to put us inside their existing CMS which was already setup etc etc. Part of the problem is that the existing CMS is Ektron... The revised library site went live in Ektron 2 years ago. My marketing contact was a massive help in getting it live and training me in ektron etc. He is now no longer with the university and we are in the middle of a transition period. My inclination and desire is to regain some level of independence wherein we collaborate with IT in getting our own server space on their servers but are not tied to their decisions regarding CMS, how and when to go mobile-friendly, etc. Our site is still not fully, truly what it should be because of limitations with Ektron and I would like to get out of it. I would like to have the option to either run a CMS of my choice or go CMS-less (since I'm the only editor). I fear that the site will be held back from being able to do the things that it needs to do. I'm hoping that I can get some responses from you all that way I can informally say of x libraries that responded y of them are not firmly tied to IT. (or something to that effect) I'm also very curious to read responses because I'm sure they will be educational and help me to make our site better. THE QUESTION: What kind of setup does your library have regarding servers, IT dept collaboration, CMS restrictions, anything else? I imagine that there are many unique situations. Any input you're willing to provide will be very welcome and useful. Thank you! Warm regards, Brad -- Brad Coffield, MLIS Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis University 814-472-3315 bcoffi...@francis.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
On Sep 2, 2014, at 11:39 AM, Brad Coffield wrote: Hi all, I would love to hear from people about what sort of setup they have regarding linkage/collaboration/constrictions/freedom regarding campus-wide IT practices and CMS usage and the library website. [trimmed] I'm hoping that I can get some responses from you all that way I can informally say of x libraries that responded y of them are not firmly tied to IT. (or something to that effect) I'm also very curious to read responses because I'm sure they will be educational and help me to make our site better. THE QUESTION: What kind of setup does your library have regarding servers, IT dept collaboration, CMS restrictions, anything else? I imagine that there are many unique situations. Any input you're willing to provide will be very welcome and useful. So, rather than answer the question (as I don't work for a library), but I worked in central IT for a university for ~7 years: If you're going to consider using central IT for your infrastructure, ask them what sort of service guarantees they're willing to provide. This is typically called a 'Service Level Agreement', where they spell out who's responsible for what, response times, acceptable downtime / maintenance windows, etc. It may include costs, but that may be a separate document. Typically, the hosted solutions are best when you've just got a few pages that rarely get updated (once a year or so); if you're pulling info from a database to display on a website, most shared solutions fall flat on their face. They might have a database where you could store stuff to make data-driven web pages, but they rarely are flexible enough to interface with some external server. So, anyway ... it doesn't matter what other schools do if your IT dept. can't provide the services you need. If they *can* provide it, you need to weight costs vs. level of service ... the cost savings may not be worth it if they regularly take the server down for maintenance at times when you need it. -Joe
Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
I was lucky to work for an academic library that served two universities, so we ran our own servers and got to pick our own look. BUT, the municipal library down the street was stuck in a bad CMS, with municipal IT that didn't want to spend time helping them. (I'm over-simplifying, a little, to make a point.) So they bought LibGuides, and they're slowly moving their whole site into that. I think they're on 1.0, but LibGuides 2.0 is flexible enough to allow for a real website look. That was actually my backup plan, if the bigger of our two universities ever got unreasonable, or if our server broke (or our building burned down or or or). - Coral
Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
Right now we have our own server, although we plan to make some changes in the future. I anticipate moving our client-side stuff into LibGuides CMS and our apps and server-side stuff over to a non-campus hosted linux environment. Part of the reason we have our own server is because of reliability issues with the campus virtual hosting. We spoke to IT about the on-campus CMS but I have no interest in using it. If we didn't have our own instance we'd be completely locked down and locked in. If we paid to license our own instance we'd be reliant on a Windows stack for that CMS and it wouldn't be cheap. I really recommend that libraries resist any of these attempts by campuses to turn their web efforts into a shake and bake shop through the application of (often junky) locked-down campus CMS solutions. I have yet to see that end well for the library. Best regards, *Jason Bengtson, MLIS, MA* Head of Library Computing and Information Systems Assistant Professor, Graduate College Department of Health Sciences Library and Information Management University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 405-271-2285, opt. 5 405-271-3297 (fax) jason-bengt...@ouhsc.edu http://library.ouhsc.edu www.jasonbengtson.com NOTICE: This e-mail is intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise exempt from disclosure. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify us by replying to the original message at the listed email address. Thank You. j.bengtson...@gmail.com On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 1:31 PM, Coral Sheldon-Hess co...@sheldon-hess.org wrote: I was lucky to work for an academic library that served two universities, so we ran our own servers and got to pick our own look. BUT, the municipal library down the street was stuck in a bad CMS, with municipal IT that didn't want to spend time helping them. (I'm over-simplifying, a little, to make a point.) So they bought LibGuides, and they're slowly moving their whole site into that. I think they're on 1.0, but LibGuides 2.0 is flexible enough to allow for a real website look. That was actually my backup plan, if the bigger of our two universities ever got unreasonable, or if our server broke (or our building burned down or or or). - Coral
Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
Hi Junior, We have been hosting library sites for 14 years and Drupal sites for over 7 years. Two years ago we shuttered our data center that was located three stories underground in an LA bank vault (really) and executed a plan that was four years in the making and moved everything to AWS. We leverage CI and other automation to reduce the boring parts of our job, and AWS's reliability reduces the exciting parts. We are AWS consulting partners and have been initiated into the AWS black arts and crafts. While we would love to have more clients, this is not an ad for us. We have a long standing policy of answering any question regarding Drupal and Drupal hosting that is asked on the Drupal4Lib list for the low price of absolutely nothing. We might not have every answer, but if we don't, odds are that someone else on the list will. This is the good stuff. We don't hold back. Drop in and fire away. Thanks, Cary On Sep 2, 2014, at 12:17 PM, Junior Tidal jti...@citytech.cuny.edu wrote: Hi Brad, When first starting working, our library web server was on a shared Windows IIS server with several other departments, which prevented us from using a CMS due to security concerns. The initial site was a static set of pages, so we couldn't install PHP, MySQL, etc. Through the encouragement of our then Chief Librarian, I wrote a proposal to our provost so the library could have our own LAMP server so we could install Drupal. The proposal was approved, but the tradeoff was that it was the library's responsibility (me) to administer the web server. IT hosted the server in their server room, but we had to maintain security, OS/site upgrades, and backups. That's not to say that our IT department wasn't helpful, they were more hands off. We've had our own server for the last 5-6 years, but it's now on its last legs. We've installed open-source CMSs such as Drupal, WordPress, and MediaWiki so we've certainly outgrown our current server. We also need to desperately upgrade our Drupal install, so we can rollout our responsive redesign. We're migrating (hopefully this week) to the cloud to an Amazon instance with a LAMP setup. IT was consulted to approve the purchase for the cloud instance. I think this is a wise move, since there will be less worry for everyone about hardware upgrades and systems maintenance. I personally think that if your library can system administrate your own server it not only makes you less dependent on your institution's IT, but it allows for the site to grow and evolve for newer web technologies. Best, Junior Junior Tidal Assistant Professor Web Services and Multimedia Librarian New York City College of Technology, CUNY 300 Jay Street, Rm A434 Brooklyn, NY 11201 718.260.5481 http://library.citytech.cuny.edu Brad Coffield bcoffield.libr...@gmail.com 9/2/2014 11:39 AM THE QUESTION: What kind of setup does your library have regarding servers, IT dept collaboration, CMS restrictions, anything else? I imagine that there are many unique situations. Any input you're willing to provide will be very welcome and useful.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty
We run our koha and library site on an Ubuntu instance in Hyper-V (2008 for 2 yrs and 2012 for the past month) and have for several years (Hyper-V 2012 actually has fantastic Linux support I would actually recommend it over ESXi or Citrix Xen, both of which I have been lucky enough to have used in production). I am a one man library/IT guy (collaboration: Me talking to myself)and I have a little more control over the servers then most. As far as updates on our Ubuntu VMs go I really dont have any issues because I normally just live clone the VM (I really like hyperv 2012 R2), issue apt-get upgrade, test, test, test, and then run apt-get upgrade on the production VM. Besides, our IT Consultants (shout out to Quo Vadis) are pretty Linux friendly, which is rare in the SMB market. From what I understand, though, the above paragraph is the exception rather then the rule. I am interested to hear what others have to share. //Riley Riley Childs Senior Charlotte United Christian Academy Library Services Administrator IT Services (704) 497-2086 rileychilds.net @rowdychildren From: Cary Gordonmailto:listu...@chillco.com Sent: 9/2/2014 5:51 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDUmailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Informal survey regarding library website liberty Hi Junior, We have been hosting library sites for 14 years and Drupal sites for over 7 years. Two years ago we shuttered our data center that was located three stories underground in an LA bank vault (really) and executed a plan that was four years in the making and moved everything to AWS. We leverage CI and other automation to reduce the boring parts of our job, and AWS's reliability reduces the exciting parts. We are AWS consulting partners and have been initiated into the AWS black arts and crafts. While we would love to have more clients, this is not an ad for us. We have a long standing policy of answering any question regarding Drupal and Drupal hosting that is asked on the Drupal4Lib list for the low price of absolutely nothing. We might not have every answer, but if we don't, odds are that someone else on the list will. This is the good stuff. We don't hold back. Drop in and fire away. Thanks, Cary On Sep 2, 2014, at 12:17 PM, Junior Tidal jti...@citytech.cuny.edu wrote: Hi Brad, When first starting working, our library web server was on a shared Windows IIS server with several other departments, which prevented us from using a CMS due to security concerns. The initial site was a static set of pages, so we couldn't install PHP, MySQL, etc. Through the encouragement of our then Chief Librarian, I wrote a proposal to our provost so the library could have our own LAMP server so we could install Drupal. The proposal was approved, but the tradeoff was that it was the library's responsibility (me) to administer the web server. IT hosted the server in their server room, but we had to maintain security, OS/site upgrades, and backups. That's not to say that our IT department wasn't helpful, they were more hands off. We've had our own server for the last 5-6 years, but it's now on its last legs. We've installed open-source CMSs such as Drupal, WordPress, and MediaWiki so we've certainly outgrown our current server. We also need to desperately upgrade our Drupal install, so we can rollout our responsive redesign. We're migrating (hopefully this week) to the cloud to an Amazon instance with a LAMP setup. IT was consulted to approve the purchase for the cloud instance. I think this is a wise move, since there will be less worry for everyone about hardware upgrades and systems maintenance. I personally think that if your library can system administrate your own server it not only makes you less dependent on your institution's IT, but it allows for the site to grow and evolve for newer web technologies. Best, Junior Junior Tidal Assistant Professor Web Services and Multimedia Librarian New York City College of Technology, CUNY 300 Jay Street, Rm A434 Brooklyn, NY 11201 718.260.5481 http://library.citytech.cuny.edu Brad Coffield bcoffield.libr...@gmail.com 9/2/2014 11:39 AM THE QUESTION: What kind of setup does your library have regarding servers, IT dept collaboration, CMS restrictions, anything else? I imagine that there are many unique situations. Any input you're willing to provide will be very welcome and useful.
