Poster Board Number: 155
Title: Library Participation in Rethinking the School of Medicine Websites with a Zero Budget
Objective: Redesign of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIUSOM) website on a zero budget and without full-time web development staff.
Methods: A central web development team, including representatives from the medical library, is a multi-professional group responsible for the design and maintenance of the school’s home page. Systematic review of external sites determined preferred functionality and organizational approaches. The library’s web developer provided draft pages. Photoshop and Fireworks were used to design the new look, and Dreamweaver was used to create the page structure and style sheets. A customized content management module based on open source systems was written for the school of medicine’s home page and associated centrally supported pages. Hypertext markup language (HTML) templates for required logo and navigation placement were created by the library web developer for use by departments. Training courses were held for departmental web editors in transitioning to the new school of medicine template. The library web developer serves as the main trainer for departmental web developers.
Results: Overall, response to the new look and navigational structure were positive. After initial release of the portion of the site on the content management system, some modifications were made in response to user feedback. The school of medicine website has begun to look more unified as departments adopt the new template. Ongoing questions and development are handled by the web development team via an email alias and meetings.
Conclusions: Use of a multi-professional group to develop the school’s web presence extended the school’s expertise without requiring new or dedicated positions. Combining library organizational and training skills with information technology and public relations expertise gave a holistic view to web development. Redesign of a website by a team representing different viewpoints and expertise can be a positive experience.
Authors: Carol Gordon, Reference and Education Librarian; Connie Poole, AHIP, Director; Rhona Kelley, AHIP, Head, Reference and Education; Fran Kovach, AHIP, Reference and Education Librarian; Medical Library; School of Medicine, Southern Illinois University, Springfield, IL
