Assignment 3: CMS interview

The third assignment for my 7505 course was to identify a library that used a CMS for its website and interview the librarian who was in charge of managing that system. The library I chose was the Ohoopee Regional Library located in Vidalia, Georgia. The librarian who oversees this libraries CMS is Dana Peeler, Assistant Director and Technical Services Librarian. The following is the transcript of the interview conducted with Ms. Peeler.

Myself: “How and where did you hear about Content Management Systems?”

Ms. Peeler: “I first heard about content management systems in the technology courses I was taking a few years ago. At that time, I was using Front Page, a WYSIWYG html editor for the design and maintenance of the library’s web site.”

Myself: “What was your or your systems motivations to adopt a CMS for its use in your library system?”

Ms. Peeler: “Our web site was stored locally on a server housed at the headquarters library.  We chose to move our site to the state library’s server when hosting was offered due to the age of our server and staff shortages locally. In order to move our web site to the state’s server, we had to use an open source CMS, specifically Drupal or Joomla.”

Myself: “What were the decision making criteria the library considered and what is the name of the CMS you are currently using?

Ms. Peeler: “I informally surveyed several colleagues regarding their thoughts about Drupal and Joomla. Based on those recommendations, I chose to go with Drupal.”

Myself: “What would you say are any benefits or advantages to using Drupal over your older system or another CMS you have used in the past?

Ms. Peeler: “Most of the benefits I have seen have more to do with moving the web site to a larger and newer server with constant monitoring rather than the CMS itself. There are many more features available in Drupal than in Front Page allowing for a more professional look.”

Myself: “How would you rate the learning curve for Drupal?”

Ms. Peeler: “The learning curve has been steep. I have purchased a couple of books on Drupal, yet I still have difficulty finding out how to do some things. The features are there but I have not been able to take advantage of many of them.”

Reflection

This interview introduced me to a new CMS in Drupal. I also found, through my interview, that because CMS are constantly changing that there is no way to know everything about the systems. The librarian stated that she still has difficulty in conducting some actions within Drupal. Overall the assignment has given me insight on how librarians learn these types of systems, as well as how they select what system to use for their libraries.