Presented with Chris Evjy at the Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) Annual Conference, October 8 2010

1. Intranet 2.0 School:
How to Build the Essential Staff
Intranet for Your Library
Chris Evjy and Nina McHale
Colorado Association of Libraries
Annual Conference
October 8 2010

2. Introduction

3. The Problem with Email
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/email

4. Why do “traditional” intranets fail?
• They’re not easy/intuitive to use
• They’re not integrated well into daily
workflows of all staff
• They don’t contain useful/relevant/timely
information
• They are not collaborative spaces
– Communication is unidirectional
– Editorial bottlenecks stifle open communication

5. Intranets 2.0?
• Web 2.0 tools have the potential to help
overcome these hurdles
• Platforms are simpler to use (i.e., blogs, wikis)
for people without web development skills
• Environments can be more open and
collaborative, especially if history of content is
kept
• However, 2.0 tools do not guarantee success

6. Environmental
Scan
Project
planning
Implementation Roll-out Assessment
Evjy/McHale Intranet Continuum

7. Environmental Scan

8. Gathering Input: User Survey
• What do you like about our current intranet?
– Or: if we had one, what would you like to have?
• What do you go there to find?
– Or: what would you want to find on an intranet?
• What would you like to be able to do?
• Present them with potential features/content
• Design aesthetic: Google or NYTimes.com
• Make survey results public, but anonymous

9. Auraria Survey Example, 1 of 2
• Questions 1 and 2 asked respondents to view two
academic library intranets and rate:
– Content
– Presentation
– Organization
– Usability
• What do you currently go to the intranet to find?
– Examples: blank forms, newsletter, statistics, reports,
minutes, policies, department information

10. Auraria Survey Example, 2 of 2
• If provided, which of the following would you
use?
– Internal news, warnings/alerts, draft material for
cttees, conference reports, presentations, calendar,
room scheduler, budget, other
• What other information would you like to find or
what task would you like to perform?
• What do you like/dislike about current
procedures for posting to the intranet?
• Any other feedback?

11. Other Information Gathering Methods
• Observe your colleagues at work (with
permission)
– What tools to they use?
– What types of documents/data do they produce?
– Where do they store these documents/data?
• Visit department/team/committee meetings
– Discuss work that members perform as a team
– Are there opportunities for tech-enabled
communication and collaboration?

12. Project planning
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jazzmasterson/2738790/

13. Framing the Project
• Who will do the work?
• What software/platform will be used?
• What types of content will we include?
• Where will this new creation live?
• When? What is our timeline?
• How do we pay for it?

14. Who Will Do the Work?
• Do you have web skills in-house?
– Does that person/those people have time to take
on a very large project?
– Can you budget the human resources?
– Team approach recommended
• Should you hire a developer?
– Can you budget the $?
– How will maintenance be handled post-launch?
– Who will work with the developer?

15. Where Will This New Creation Live?
• Where is your web server currently?
• Do you have a high enough level of access to
create a new site, or will you have to negotiate
with your IT support?
• If you don’t have an appropriate environment,
investigate options such as:
– Purchasing commercial web space
– Using a free hosted service, i.e., PBWorks
– Consider how to secure sensitive information

16. What Software/Platform Will Be Used?
• Blogs
– Blogger
– WordPress
• Wikis
– PBWorks
– MediaWiki
• Content Management Systems
– Microsoft SharePoint
– Drupal
– An intranet is a great way to introduce a CMS into
your organization because it is low risk

17. What content areas to include?
• People
• Documents/Documentation
• Communication venues
• Professional resources

18. People
• Personal profiles
– Professional details
– Personal details (fun & optional)
• Photos arranged in galleries
• Birthdays! Yes!
• Contact lists

19. Documents/Documentation
• Minutes, policies, forms?
• Conference reports? Presentations given to the
library? Professional resources?
• Department, committee, group info?
• Procedures, documentation?
• Online workflow?
– Examples: purchase and travel request forms, tech
services workflow
• Communication?

20. Pic Break
http://www.igougo.com/photos/journal/132x132/Carmax_LA%20-%2042.jpg

21. Communication Venues
• Admin/Management  Staff
– Blogs
• Staff  Admin/Management
– Forums
• Staff  Staff
– Blogs
– Forums
– Comments
• Between members of work groups

22. Professional Resources
• RSS feeds from publications
– LISNews
– LibraryJournal feeds, etc.
• RSS feed from LEO (Library Education
Opportunities)
• Conference calendar
• Internal job openings
• Local resources specific to your library

23. Sample project goals, BPL
• Facilitate communication between staff
members, departments & branches and
contribute to the sense of a BPL Community.
• Effectively support the work of BPL Public
Services staff.
• Provide BPL staff with a reliable source of
information concerning logistical aspects of
working for the Boulder Public Library.
• Introduce BPL staff to the concepts and practices
involved in web content management.

24. Auraria Project Planning
• In 2006, Intranet Redesign Task Group was
formed
• Survey conducted revealed great
dissatisfaction with legacy SharePoint intranet
• Aging server threatened stability of intranet
• Decision was made for static web site to
moved content to stable environment ASAP
• Work turned over to Web Librarian for
implementation

25. Implementation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottrettberg/1596702/

26. Migrating Content
• What can be moved as-is?
– very little…
• What needs revision?
– and by whom?
– what is critical prior to launch?
• What can be left off the new intranet?
– can it be forgotten forever?
– should it be archived?

27. Usability Observations
• “As easy as a light switch.”
• Looking over users’ shoulders
• Task focused
• Streamline user experience
– What are people getting hung up on?
– What could make tasks more efficient?
– Are your design decisions in line with the reality of
use?

28. Drupal (Boulder) vs.
MediaWiki (Auraria)
• Open Source/Free
• Fully customizable
• Steep backend learning
curve
• More user-friendly to end
users
• Overall, more feature
flexibility
• More theme (look and
feel) options for Drupal
• Permissions can be
defined more granularly
• Open Source/Free
• Much quicker to
install/configure/launch
• Automatically has
document
history/revisions,
discussion pages
• Backend learning curve
easier
• Does not handle
document files well
• Doesn’t manage
workflow

29. Our fav
=

30. Drupal is
soooooo
perfect for
Intranets

32. Blogs, Wikis, Comments
and Web 2.0 goodness

34. Forums & Notifications

36. Content Profile & Views

39. LDAP Integration

40. Finder & Birthdays

42. Node Reference & Taxonomy

43. Work in progress…

44. Aggregator & Feeds
RSS

47. Organic Groups &
Organic Groups Taxonomy

48. Work in progress…

49. FAQ & Taxonomy

51. Roll-out
http://www.flickr.com/photos/axlefoley/4001306346/

52. Roll-out
• Launch Beta site
• Training
– Group training (workshops)
– Training tree
– Screencasts (point-of-need help)
– Help documentation
• Resources
• Marketing
– Task focused weekly campaign approach

53. Auraria Roll-out Examples
• Adoption by Shared Leadership Team
• Minutes procedures (documentation page)
• Group training
– Covered the basics of wikitext (links, lists)
– Individual wiki page as sandboxes

54. Minutes Best Practices

55. Assessment
http://www.flickr.com/photos/traductioninfidele/50939641/

56. Assessment
• User Satisfaction
– Usability isn’t just for the library’s home page
– Re-administer survey
– Individual features and content areas
• Metrics/quantitative evidence
– Survey results
• Compare to “environmental scan” results
– Web statistics

57. Boulder Examples
•Not there yet.

58. Auraria Assessment 2010
• Email poll: what should be on the intranet’s
home page?
• Survey responses to four questions:
– How often do you refer to the intranet
– How often do you add, edit, or change content?
– What do you like best?
– What could be improved?
• Wiki statistics

59. Email Poll

60. Survey Responses, 1 of 2

61. Survey Responses, 2 of 2

62. Survey Results: What’s Good
• Uses network login
• Easy to create, edit, and store content
• Freedom and flexibility to add content
• Good for documentation
• Good for collaboration
• Gets information out of our email, off of our
hard drives, and into a centralized location

63. Survey Results:
What Could be Better
• Login clunky (even though it’s network)
• Formatting wiki pages
• Navigation
• Search feature and results
• Linking to non-wiki documents (i.e., shared
drive)
• Easy to lose content (no auto save)
• Integration with Excel and PowerPoint

64. Auraria Wiki Stats

65. Intranets Issue of Journal of Web
Librarianship

66. Questions? Comments?
Chris Evjy
Boulder Public Library
MSLIS candidate,
Syracuse University
evjyc@boulderlibrary.org
@endupok
Nina McHale
Auraria Library
nina.mchale@ucdenver.edu
@ninermac
milehighbrarian.net
slideshare.net/endupok
slideshare.net/ninermac