Technology has transformed libraries. There are digital libraries, electronic collections, online databases and catalogs, ebooks, downloadable books, and much more. With free technology such as social websites, newspaper collections, downloadable online calendars, clocks and sticky notes, online scheduling, online document sharing, and online…

The year 2011 was the PALNI (Private Academic Library Network of Indiana) consortium's "rookie season" for the implementation of Primo, the 2010 Discovery Layer 500 race winner. In this article, the authors report on their transition to the cloud within Ex Libris Ltd.'s Primo TotalCare environment: their preparation, the steps involved…

Since launching its first website in 1997, the Arapahoe Library District (ALD) has constantly looked at ways to review and renew this vital tool for patrons. This article focuses on the process of redesigning the ALD website--the steps taken and decisions made in order to create a site that incorporates interactive elements and patron input and…

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Library, where the author serves as the digital services librarian, is increasingly challenged to make it easier for users to find information from many heterogeneous information sources. Information is scattered throughout different software applications (i.e., library catalog, federated search engine, link…

Darien Library, where the author serves as head of knowledge and learning services, launched a new website on September 1, 2008. The website is built with Drupal, an open source content management system (CMS). In this article, the author describes how she and her colleagues overhauled the library's website to provide an open source content…

This article discusses Research Blogging, a community-run nonprofit organization that is promoting a suite of blogging software to scholars. Research Blogging itself does two things. First, it extends an invitation to a community, and it is open to anyone. Second, it requires its users to follow guidelines. The combination of rigorous guidelines…

Oregon State University (OSU) libraries, where the author serves as lead programmer, have developed a tool to make it easier for librarians to build and maintain interactive course assignment pages (ICAPs) and subject research guides (SRGs). That tool, Library a la Carte, enables librarians with minimal technical expertise to create dynamic…

In this month's column, the author discusses his work on the Library Technology Guides site, additions he has made to the lib-web-cats online directory of libraries, and applications he has created for managing home projects such as family photographs.

Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) is an emerging format that allows for the creation of customized research packages to push to patrons. It is a way to gather collections of Web resources (links, RSS feeds, multimedia files), organize them as outlines, and publish them in a format that others can share and even subscribe to. In this…

This column describes ways to streamline and optimize how a Web site works in order to improve both its usability and its visibility. The author explains how to analyze logs and other system data to measure the effectiveness of the Web site design and search engine.

OpenURL resolver is the next big thing for libraries. An OpenURL resolver is simply a piece of software that sucks in attached data and serves up a Web page that tells one where he or she can get the book or article represented by it. In this article, the author describes how he designed an OpenURL resolver for his library, the Lewis & Clark…