At the Ref Desk (2/4/12): Midterms -- computer labs are full, plenty of students needing help finding articles. Subjects ranging from Biology to Original Sin. [more...]
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Website of the Month

Redesign of UIC Admissions & Records Website

Submitted by Leo Klein on Tue, 1/4/11 (11:29am)
oar_new_template_2010.jpg

As if I didn't have enough to do over the holidays (see below), I redesigned the website template for UIC's Office of Admissions & Records.

Basically what I did was to bring the thing into compliance with the University's new top-level website which they changed at the beginning of the school year.

The holidays are always a great time to do something like this (since basically no one's looking) so you can believe I worked my butt off to get this done on time.

Topic: 
Website of the Month
Location: 
Chicago
Institution: 
UIC

New Website: SchoolRiseUSA.com

Submitted by Leo Klein on Sun, 10/31/10 (11:39pm)
schoolrise_640x480.jpg

I'm pleased -- not to mention a bit relieved -- to announce the launch of the new website for the organization, SchoolRise USA. SchoolRise USA is a group of educators spread throughout the United States who work with elementary schools to improve student literacy.

Topic: 
Website of the Month
Institution: 
SchoolRise

Screencast on News & Blog Server

Submitted by Leo Klein on Wed, 9/1/10 (9:07am)
oar_circle_640x480.png

I put together a screencast about our News & Blog server for UIC's Office of Admissions & Records:

http://www.oar.uic.edu/circle

The server runs on Drupal and currently supports 5 different Blogs & News services. Built into the system is a publication workflow consisting of 'Authors' who create content and 'Editors' who give that content final approval. All comments are moderated and easily accessed on one page through a special 'Dashboard' utility.

Topic: 
Website of the Month
Drupal
Talk/Presentation
Location: 
Chicago
Institution: 
UIC

New Website: UIC Office of Admissions & Records

Submitted by Leo Klein on Sat, 1/2/10 (10:29am)
oar_uic_main2.png

So the site I've been losing sleep over for the past couple of weeks months is finally up. I had set a deadline for the beginning of the year and, by golly, I made it -- even if the thing kind of put a damper on my holiday activities: http://oar.uic.edu

Topic: 
Website of the Month
Web Development
Location: 
Chicago
Institution: 
UIC

New Website: CitizenAction-IL.org

Submitted by Leo Klein on Mon, 11/30/09 (10:12am)
citizenaction-il_main.jpg

Here's something I launched in between bites of turkey over the weekend: http://www.CitizenAction-IL.org

It's for a great statewide organization that's very active in health care reform among other things.

Basically I took what they already had -- essentially a site consisting of links and pdf files -- and completely automated the thing so that in-house staff can add content themselves rather than sending it out to a web specialist.

Topic: 
Website of the Month
Personal Project

SaveIllinoisLibraries.com

Submitted by Leo Klein on Wed, 10/21/09 (4:18pm)
savethelibraries.jpg

You know it's bad news when the FAQs start with:

"The budget for the state of Illinois is in a shambles."

I came upon it fresh from an article on Library Journal with the ominous title:

LJ's 2009 Placements & Salaries Survey Shows Tough Library Job Market

Anyway, back to the Illinois site. The FAQ continues:

Topic: 
Website of the Month
Libraries
Hard Times
Location: 
Illinois

Tribune Launches Much Improved Site Redesign

Submitted by Leo Klein on Mon, 8/10/09 (10:49am)
chicagotribune_2009_08_11.jpg

It's 2009 and the Chicago Tribune has only now figured out what it takes to design a website. Still, you have to hand it to them, it's a vast improvement over the previous iteration. They even went back to the old letterhead.

Topic: 
Website of the Month
Location: 
Chicago
Institution: 
Chicago Tribune

PLAspace.org - Official Launch

Submitted by Leo Klein on Mon, 9/15/08 (1:47pm)

Okay, today was the official launch of the new community site that I've been working on for the Public Library Association: PLAspace.org

The announcement reads:

Today marks another milestone in the rollout of PLAspace. We officially open the doors to new CoPs and new participants.

We created PLAspace to give Public Library Association members a place where they could share ideas and work together on common interests. Today, the first official day for the site, we already have several dozen members and a half-dozen CoPs.

Topic: 
ALA
Public Libraries
Personal Project
Website of the Month

Congressional Campaign Site: DebbieHalvorson.com

Submitted by Leo Klein on Sun, 1/13/08 (9:12am)
halvorson_main_640x480.jpg

I'm still kind of knocked out -- been working 24/7 on this for several weeks. That said, I'm pleased to announce the availability online of DebbieHalvorson.com.

Debbie's running for Congress in the 11th CD of Illinois.

The site is fully automated using Drupal for content management. Campaign staff can add images to any content type (eg. press release, blog post, etc.) They can also designate any post as "spotlight" for the 'In Focus' section on the front page.

Topic: 
Website of the Month
Drupal
Personal Project

Chicago Documentation Center

Submitted by Leo Klein on Fri, 9/7/07 (2:18am)
cdc_screenshot.png

Here's a preview of something I've been working on. It's called the "Chicago Documentation Center" and it's going to be the home for various exhibits and digitization projects that I'll be doing.

The full name is "Chicago Documentation Center: Documenting the Life and Times of Chicago and the American Midwest".

The scope is pretty wide -- basically anything of historical or cultural value in the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois or the U.S. as a whole.

Topic: 
Website of the Month
Personal Project

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