Library Web Chic

In the last 24 hours I’ve discovered one of the most dangerous things about having a big library website: no one knows who pages belong to or what the purpose of certain pages are. To make matters worse, it seems we’ve got intranet stuff on both our intranet server and our public webserver. The whole thing makes my head spin and wonder if there is any possible way I’ll get the site redone here without touching both the public and private web servers.

It just goes to illustrate how technological legacies catch up with you. I really don’t think that anyone here has sat down and actually looked to see all the pieces that make up the Libraries site and where those peices should live. Coming in I assumed that the web developers had done such a site inventory, they did that work for the database that drives the Libraries site. So it made sense to me that it would be done. Big (wrong) assumption on my part.

The fact that it hasn’t been done pretty distressing and I’m going to have to move “site inventory” to the top of my priority list. Otherwise I will likely continue to find little treasures as I work here. All of this severely hampers and throws up my brillant project plan. However, the truth is that it HAS to be done. Its kind of like saying you can move into a new house without cleaning everything first. You just can’t. If you do you find little surprises all the time, which is what I’m going through right now. So its time to take a step back and start getting brutal with how I deal with things. Otherwise I’m going to lose my mind, my job or both.