Online Doc WAC Report to Council (Midwinter 2009)

Web Advisory Committee Report to Council III

Website CMS information:

Situation summary: Collage, the ALA web content management system software, will be discontinued by the developers within one year.  Collage updates and support will expire within three years 

• WAC is taking these steps
  • Convene internal task-force with representation from all affected units
  • Investigate and explore options for a web content management system which is intuitive, stable and scalable
  • Report back progress and draft recommendations for discussion at Annual 2009

Event Planner information:

Situation summary: Members have expressed dissatisfaction with the current event planner. 

• WAC is taking these steps
  • Working to implement the Event Planner in ALA Connect
  • Will survey the membership for feedback on features and functionality
  • Will report on "Event Planner in ALA Connect" progress at Annual 2009

Website content standards:

Situation summary: Members report some difficulty finding things on the ALA website. Members occasionally have discovered older versions of a current web page on the ALA website. 

• WAC is taking these steps
  • Task force to recommend future directions for the ALA website
    (meaning the website stored and maintained within the CMS)
    • i.e., is the ALA website mainly an archive of permanent content with current content in blogs/wikis -or- is the website mainly for current information with links to other internal resources for historical documents -or- somewhere in between?
  • Task force will report recommendations to WAC by Midwinter 2010

Accessibility issues and data cleanup:

Situation summary: The ALA website has never had a full accessibility review.  ITTS Staff calculate that a full accessibility review and data cleanup to meet web content accessibility guidelines would take approximately ten (10) "person-years" (10 years for 1 person to do).  The code which controls display of the ALA website does not meet web standards.  With the looming need to migrate off the Collage CMS system, "clean" data is imperative to a smooth, seamless transition to a new web content management system. 

• WAC is taking these steps
  • Recommends ALA allocate funds to do an accessibility review at the highest priority level
  • Recommends ALA allocate funds to do a data cleanup project to repair or remove non-compliant code at the highest priority level

Recognition for Content Managers:

Situation summary: There has been a large cadre of members and staff who have undertaken the task of managing and updating content over recent years.  Without the Herculean efforts of these dedicated members and staffers, the ALA website content would not be complete. 

• WAC is taking these steps
  • Formally recognize content managers for all ALA web content