Drupal
Way too long ago -- about a 100 years ago -- I asked people on the Drupal4Lib ListServ to send in links to their Database page(s) or Research/Subject guides that use Drupal.
I got a couple of very good responses which I've now finally posted as a Wiki Page on the Drupal Library Group:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/58423
I just sent a follow-up message to the Drupal4Lib ListServ asking people to have a look and to post their own pages if they want.
I guess the goal is to develop an idea of just what the possibilities are using Drupal in this way.
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 3:47pm.
Wow, I just checked the number of members for the Drupal4Lib ListServ and it's over 600! Not bad.
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 11:55am.
There's an interesting (albeit preliminary) discussion about organizing a 'Library DrupalCamp' for ALA in DC this summer on the Drupal Group for Libraries.
If that piques your interest, have a gander at:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/32822
We'll be having a get-together of the Chicagoland Library Drupal Group on Mon., Dec. 7 (9:30-12noon) at the Oak Park Public Library.
I'll be doing a presentation that's been near and dear to my heart recently: incorporating WYSIWYG into Drupal. It's called, appropriately enough, "The Joys & Sorrows of WYSIWYG".
Russ Bomhof and Geoffrey Hing from CRL (who recently launched their site in Drupal) will also be presenting.
Announcement from organizer Mick Jacobsen (Skokie Public) after the jump...
It's nice to see Drupal mentioned in the context of "cool thing to do" but I don't think Cindi Trainor in her piece on Sacred Cows in Library IT gets exactly what you can do with it:
Experimenting with low-cost or no-cost tools like Twitter will only cost staff time, but implementing expensive (think federated search) or complex-but-free technologies (think Drupal) because it's the cool thing to do can be a very costly lesson for a library to learn, in terms of budget, staff time, morale and user satisfaction.
First, there's no impediment to 'experimenting' with Drupal any more than there is to experimenting with Twitter. The first implementation I ever dealt with was on my own laptop. I didn't even need a network connection!
Also, as far as complexity goes, what are we comparing it to? I mean, you can't run a website on Twitter so that's not an option.
It just so happens that an institution's website is a fairly complex organism. It's going to involve a considerable investment no matter how you choose to go about it.
The fact that Drupal can potentially make it less costly in terms of budget, staff time, etc. -- while being far more effective as a tool -- that's what makes it "cool" and why people choose it. Not the other way around.
P.S. It's kind of ironic that the above quote fell under the Sacred Cow, "Cutting-edge is better; bleeding-edge is best" -- considering that the piece grew out of a discussion on the oh-so-bleeding-edge "Google Wave".
Whitehouse.gov, the official website of the POTUS, has gone Drupal. Here's the news from the AP. Tim O'Reilly (of O'Reilly Books fame) has some thoughts on the development as well as Drupal founder, Dries Buytaert.
The AP article correctly alludes (perhaps without realizing it) to the strength of popular open-source software like Drupal where you have many eyes all over the world looking over the product, working continuously to improve it:
Having the public write code may seem like a security risk, but it's just the opposite, experts inside and outside the government argued. Because programmers collaborate to find errors or opportunities to exploit Web code, the final product is therefore more secure.
For instance, instead of a dozen administration programmers trying to find errors, thousands of programmers online constantly are refining the programs and finding potential pitfalls.
I'd only add that the collaborative nature of open-source software is important not only for trouble-shooting and security but for innovation as well.
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 9:41am.
We had a great turn-out with about 20 librarians representing a good cross-section of both institutions and areas in and around Chicago. The discussion was so engaging that I totally forgot to take a picture!
We discussed topics such as migration of systems, what to put in a RFP, the future of MySQL and how that might affect Drupal, getting buy-in from staff and To WYSIWYG or Not to WYSIWYG. I discussed publication workflows based on my experience over the summer setting up a number of blogs and news services.
We also had a number of people presenting their websites. This included library websites at Wheaton College and Trinity University (Deerfield), ALA's TechSource, a collaborative project between U. of C. and the German Chemical Society called XCITR (Explore Chemical Informatics Teaching Resources) and finally, a very interesting community-based cataloging project by the Chicago Underground Library.
Back in July at our BoF at ALA, I recall thinking that it easily could have lasted longer than the hour and a half originally schedule. This one in September was two hours and most of us were still raring to go!
I'd like to thank everyone who came and participated. I'd especially like to thank our wonderful hosts, the Metropolitan Library System.
I look forward to our getting back together on Monday, 12/7/09 9:30-12 at OPPL!
Just got word that 26 people have already signed up for the Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF that we're having next Friday (9/25, 2p-4p) at the offices of the Metropolitan Library System (i.e. across the street from the Art Institute). This is great news.
I'll be doing something on publication workflows based (loosely) on 'Using Drupal' (chap. 6). If we have time, I can also talk about my adventures with data migration and import.
We're kind of reaching our limit but people can still register (for free) at:
http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=5356
See you next Friday!
Wow, the big Drupal Convention for North America is coming to Chicago in 2011. Here's the announcement from the Drupalcon North American Regional Organizing Group:
...the [Drupal Association] Board has preemptively made a decision on the location and team for the 2011 North American Drupalcon, tapping Chicago for Drupalcon 2011.
You can follow them on Twitter by going to: http://twitter.com/drupalchicago
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 10:10am.
I'm delighted to report that we had a wonderful Drupal4Lib BoF with maybe 25-30 people (agenda here). You know it's a good sign when after the thing is over, you wish it had lasted maybe another half an hour or more!
Round Robin of Participants
People introduced themselves and discussed their interest in Drupal. This being ALA, we had people from all parts of the country (Nevada, New York, LA) and from all library types (academic, public, consortium). Some had already implemented Drupal in their institution while others were still in the planning stage.
Drupal4Lib LITA IG
We discussed our 'Drupal4Lib LITA IG' and how maintaining the IG conferred a number of advantages, namely, the continuing support from LITA as well as the availability of a meeting room come conference time.
Ron Peterson from Univ. of Delaware generously offered to serve as Chair for next year and to help out with arranging our meeting in DC. Yea Ron!
Upcoming Version: Drupal 7 ('D7')
We next proceeded to the actual meat-and-potatoes of our get-together, the first topic being the upcoming version of Drupal, affectionately known as 'D7'.
We were fortunate to have among us the Drupal expert Cary Gordon. Cary is a Drupal Board Member and maintainer of the Drupal Group for Libraries. He was particularly helpful in explaining some of the finer points of the coming release.
This gave people, I hope, not simply an insight into the particulars of 'D7' but also a general idea of the life-cycle of Drupal projects, when to upgrade and what to expect.
Discussion of Websites & Projects
Alas, we only had time for three presentations.
The first was by Chip Halvorson of the Alachua County Library District who discussed the redesign of his institution's website using Drupal.
Next up was Sean Fitzpatrick of ALA who showed us a Drupal installation -- on his netbook, no less -- that he was working on to make publishing news easier on the ALA site.
Finally we had Lauren Henderson from the Troy Public Library (Mich.) who gave us a sneak peek of her library's new site, also based on Drupal.
Conclusion
And that was all the time we had!
I'd like to thank all of the participants, particularly Ron Peterson for agreeing to be our new Chair. I look forward to seeing everyone next year at ALA in DC and before then maybe through our ListServ Drupal4Lib.org or through the Drupal Group for Libraries.
Thanks again to you all!
LEO
Chicago, IL.
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Wed, 07/15/2009 - 9:30am.
