Assignment 2

As the designated team leader, on Sunday, May 23, 2010, I went to the WordPress website to set up the site and the blog page. Both of these tasks had been accomplished already, so I was a little confused. I then went to the discussion board to ask for clarification and to make sure I wasn’t thinking that these tasks had been completed when they really hadn’t been. By the next time I was able to log onto WordPress, one team member had already started the communication and blog categories. I answered a question she had posted and played around with the site that night.

When I had the time to dedicate to the website, I played with the Theme. I changed the theme that was currently in place and then adjusted the settings. I then changed the colors and how the page was organized. That night, I also added a post category to the ones we currently had listed. After completing that task, I explored the widgets and plugins available. I attempted to upload a plugin but I don’t believe I had the required permission to do so. I edited links in the blogroll and added all team members personal blogs created in Assignment 1 to the blogroll list. I answered a question posted on the board and then signed off for the night.

The next time I logged on to WordPress, I added a custom title to our categories under the theme settings, and I worked on my individual profile page. Uploading and adjusting the image on my profile page was interesting, and after a few different tries, I finally got it in the size I wanted. I then wanted to see about embedding a video on the blog, so I found an appropriate video on YouTube posting it to our site without any incident.

On Thursday night, I logged back onto our site to see what changes had been made during the day. I answered a few questions and responded to a few posts on the blog. I also worked on organizing our page. Overall, this was a great experience working with WordPress.

http://www.valdosta.edu/~foguz/7505/team7

Busy Day

Travel day for work, but it allowed me to read all the articles for my MLIS 7505 Maymester course. Now, if I could just figure out how to download all the media files for times where the plane doesn't have gogo. . .

Overwhelmed

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by this Maymester course; I am reminded of my first semester and the first course I took with Dr. Oguz!!!

Part IV: Finding a Wiki for a Library

Paul M. Adams Memorial Library at Rocky Mountain College Wiki

• Should be noted that I am not associated with this library other than the fact that I graduated with an undergraduate degree from Rocky Mountain College in 2000. Facts listed below are accurate, but everything listed below with the wiki is for an MLIS Assignment.

Adams Library is located on the campus of Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana. Rocky is a private liberal arts institution wit over 25 undergraduate majors and several less traditional academic opportunities including an aviation program, equestrian program, and a physician assistant program.

The library serves a small population of about 1050 which includes a student body of about 900 and 150 faculty and staff members. With such a small student body, the library’s staffs of three permanent full time employees and 2 student workers are able to offer a personalized approach to their patrons and the community. Adams Library has 85,000 titles, 100,000 volumes, 200 periodical subscriptions, 1000 dvds, 20 database subscriptions, and a unique extensive collection of geological materials. The library expenses are limited and they have an annual budget of only $245,000.

The goal of the wiki is to provide an alternative collaboration resource for other libraries, the library staff, patrons, and the community. For example, Adams’ Library is interested in providing access and information about their extensive geological materials to interested parties in the field. They are also interested in how a wiki can be used as a resource between the library staff and the student body/community. As this is their first attempt at using a wiki, the Rocky staff requires the wiki be easily used, easily adaptable to their special needs, and aesthetically appealing.

I used the Wiki Choice Wizard located at www.wikimatrix.com. By following the simple steps, the wizard narrowed down my search drastically to 11 potential wikis. After careful consideration, I chose to go with MindTouch. This wiki was inexpensive yet has support if necessary, it offers the ability to change and alter to user specific needs, many media features, and prominent security features.

Finally

After playing with this template and the blogger website for most of the week, I believe that I have finally found a version that I will use.