Delivering Individualized Library Content: Portals & The Future of

Library Web SitesTom Ipri

Media Services LibrarianConnelly LibraryPhiladelphia, PAipri@lasalle.edu

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

La Salle University

• Founded in 1863• Philadelphia, PA• 6200 students• Main campus and 2

satellites

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Connelly Library

• 9 Full time librarians• 1 Part-time at satellite• No dedicated Web

person• No dedicated Portal

person

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

mylasalle

• Luminis/Campus Pipeline• University Wide• Live Summer 2003 • Cradle to Grave

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Why Library Services in mylasalle?

• The largest source of information on campus

• Best opportunity to segment information from a vast collection and direct it to specific populations

• Only way to get email• Registration, housing, grades

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Brief History

• On development committee• Ensure library presence• Library “tab”

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Original Look

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

First Version

• Basically a “dumbed-down” version of home page

• Not taking advantage of potential• Director of Portal Communications hired

2004

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Second Version

• This time it’s personal• Campus and Targeted Announcements• myConnellyLibrary• myResources

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

myResources

• Library subject guide +• Resources from departments

– Forms, procedures, job ads, etc.• Education, Social Work, Grad Psych, SLH

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

New Developments

• Assignment Calculator• Use of RSS feeds• Federated search• WebPac Pro

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

RSS Feeds

• Simple XML code• Library news• Databases• Electronic Journals• Library Links• Basically anything

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Snags

• Director of Portal Communication leaves– Change of priorities– Uncertain future

• New Web team– PHP/MySQL– Code to read database output

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Back on Track

• A lot of bits and pieces– Adding hand-coded & RSS channels– Converting database info to feeds

• Can be aggregated on one “Tab”• Tab – channels – tab• Marketing• Training

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

What’s Next

• Federated search• SSO for databases• WebPAC Pro

– Circulation info in channel• More use of CSS

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Is it a mash-up?

• Darlene Fichter– Web site or web application that uses context

from one or more sources to create a completely new service

– Building blocks

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Portals and Library 2.0

• Paul Miller– Push the library everywhere– Disaggregate library systems– Liberate the data– Get the data to the user, not the user to the

data

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Impact

• Rethinking library services with the portal in mind

• Portal is designed to be dynamic and customizable

• Bring information closer to user• Portal roles

Tom Ipri - Wide Open Portals

Impact

• Not a huge entity parsed into smaller bits• But smaller bits that are greater than the

whole• Don’t add up to one thing, but different

things for different people• Future of library web sites?

Delivering Individualized Library Content: Portals & The Future of

Library Web SitesTom Ipri

Media Services LibrarianConnelly LibraryPhiladelphia, PAipri@lasalle.edu