more drupal, if you can stand it
This might be the last post I write on drupal for a while, not because I’m over it, but because there are a few other projects that have usurped my time, so it’s far more likely that you’ll hear me talk about mobile tech, usability, UI design, and new media over the next little while. That is, if you hear me talk at all (my blogging record being what it is).
Back in January, I had the pleasure of presenting at the OLA Super Conference with Catherine Baird, our Marketing, Communications and Outreach Librarian at McMaster, and Greg Senemma, Electronic Services Librarian at Wilfrid Laurier. Our goal for the session was to cover 3 different uses/installations of drupal (our library website and intranet at McMaster and the Laurier Library website). The three projects all differered in subtle ways, from our experience with different versions of the software, to the parametres we were working with for each of the projects, which lent itself to some fruitful comparisons and discussion. Our slides for the presentation are here. If you’ve been following along with the recent series of drupal-related posts on this blog, you might want to have a closer look at the last couple of slides, which effectively cover everything I said I’d cover in the final post of the series which never ended up getting written (lessons learned & must-have modules). Forgive me?
The other cool drupal-related thing that has gone down in the last couple of weeks was, of course, drupal4lib camp! Part of my excitement for the day was, admittedly, about being in Darien’s fabulous new building, which is decked out with all sorts of technology goodness, like the digital signage you see in the image on the left, but also the fun-to-watch self-check-in machine. It is obvious that they put a whole lot of thought into getting things right at Darien — from the technology to the staffing model and services — and walking through the building, witnessing the patrons interact with the staff, collections and space really illustrated just how right they got it.
The camp itself went quite well. I had some excellent conversations with other library drupalers during the course of the day that confirmed that people were learning good things and making important connections. I think the general feeling at the end of the day was that the camp should become an annual event, and I take that as a sign of success!
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