Assignment Three

I conducted an interview via email with Dean Frey, director of the Red Deer Public Library in Red Deer, Alberta. The transcript is below.

Dean Frey: Intro: We're using Drupal 5.7 for a variety of websites:

www.rdpl.org - our main library website

www.electionforum.ca - a site devoted to the 2007 Municipal Elections - this will be re-started for the 2010 elections.

www.artsparks.org - a site about arts programming for persons with developmental disabilities.

www.digitalreddeer.ca - a digital repository

www.villalobos.ca - a site about Heitor Villa-Lobos (a personal project of mine)

staff.rdpl.org - a staff intranet

board.rdpl.org - a Library Board extranet

Me: How and where did you hear about content management systems?

DF: My IT Librarian (now Assistant Director) Cory Stier was well-versed in all of our CMS options.

Me: What were the motivations to use a content management system for the library's site?

DF: We wanted to distribute the content creation to a variety of people throughout the library, and to separate the content from the look+feel of the websites. We also wanted a robust back-end database to manage stories, information about events, image libraries, links, and specialized data. As we developed our websites using Drupal, we got more involved in blog posts and comments, and also needed user control for password-protected intranet and extranet sites.

Me: What criteria led to the adoption of Drupal, in particular?

DF: We wanted a robust system from the Open Source world: something that had a significant user-base to develop and test new functionality. We liked that functionality could be easily added by adding newe modules.

Me: What benefits does Drupal offer over the previous site or other content management systems you've used?

DF: Everything from 2. and 3. above, plus the opportunity to see some fairly mature library Drupal websites in operation. We liked Drupal's openness, and the upgrade path to new functionality. Drupal is very, very solid.

Me: Are there disadvantages to using Drupal?

DF: Some modules (Events, for example) are complex to setup, though once they're in place, they're very easy to keep running.

Me: How was the learning curve?

DF: On the setup side, my impression is that it was pretty quick for our IT staff. I was involved in putting together bits of the staff and board sites, and most of villalobos.ca. As more of an end-user than an IT person, I would say the setup of the site was of moderate difficulty. I think most staff and Board member end-users have found content development very easy and intuitive. Having secure sites to learn in made things less stressful.

Me: Are departments or non-IT staff updating their own content? If so, what kind of training was used for those staff?

DF: Yes. There has been some training - mostly one-on-one, I think. We've encouraged posting and commenting by all in the staff site, and that's worked out very well. Practising in the staff site (especially in the "Just Testing" and "Personal" sections) has given people the skills and experience to be able to update public sites.

Me: My class has been posting all of our assignments to a public blog. May I post your name and the library's name on my class blog?

DF: Yes, please do. We'll be on the lookout for Drupal-ready librarians in the future, so it's good for us to get our name out there. Red Deer is a great place to live, by the way, though it's a tiny bit colder here than it is in Georgia.