Sisterlibmasterplan20130618
== ALA Sister Libraries
Wiki Update Project Plan
Prepared by Justine Withers ==
For: Sandra Hirsh, co-chair <sandy.hirsh@sjsu.edu> Peggy Ridlen, co-chair Zola Maddison, past co-chair <zmaddison@gmail.com> Shu-Hua Liu, webmaster <sister.libraries@gmail.com> Joyce Weihagen, committee member <joyce.wiehagen@gmail.com> Delin Guerra, IRRT Program Officer <dguerra@ala.org>
Goals Phase 1
• Determine template for all records COMPLETE
• Update directory COMPLETE
• Find and report success stories IN PROGRESS
• Review procedures and document IN PROGRESS
• Identify publicity opportunities IN PROGRESS
Goals Phase 2 (unscheduled) • Update existing partnerships
• Update home page: news
Milestones
Rough draft to SH: 19 Jan 2013
SH presents draft plan to committee at Midwinter ALA: 25-29 Jan 2013
Send email to participants: 11 April 2013
Gather responses:deadline 2 May 2013
Follow up: email sent 30 May 2013 (deadline 12 June 2013)
Collate and publish: completed 30 May 2013, 13 June 2013
Goal: Determine Template for Records COMPLETE
Action Target Date Complete Date
Gather existing information and fields 1/16/2013
Gain consensus on necessary fields 1/26/2013 (ALA Midwinter) 3/1/2013
Related Tasks
Check that unpartnered list is correct, no duplication with partnered list DONE
Template
Existing New
Name Library name
Street Street Address
City City
State State, province, or region
Mailing code Postal code
Country Country
Phone Telephone number
Fax Fax number
Population served
How large is the community that your library serves?
Type of library Type of library
Languages (preferred) Preferred language of communication at your library
Other languages spoken
Contact name Contact surname (last name)
Contact given name first name)
Contact title Contact title
Contact email Contact email address
Alternate email address
Library website Library website
Country and region preferred Preferred country or region for partnership
Reason for wanting a sister library Why do you want to participate in a Sister Library partnership?
What type of project would you like to participate in with your Sister Library?
Date entered Date entered
Last updated Last updated
Goal: Update Wiki Directory COMPLETE
Action Target Date Complete Date
Draft email 1/18/2013 1/16/2013
Gather library information to personalize emails 1/31/2013? 3/7/2013 Finalize email 1/31/2013? 4/8/2013
Finalize mailing list 2/4/2013? 2/25/2013
Send email 2/4/2013? 4/11/2013
Send reminder two weeks after mailing 4/25/2013
Collect all responses/purge non-responses three weeks after mailing 5/2/2013
Post updated information 5/30/2013
6/13/2013
Report any success stories none
Email all unpartnered libraries
• Check websites for contact information, current status of sister libraries DONE
• Include brochure in English and appropriate language DONE
• Arabic brochure does not work, no available source for updated version at this time
• brochures in alternate languages was deemed sufficient. no need to translate email.
• Send email to existing contact and general email if available DONE
• Ask for replies within three weeks; remind after two DONE
• Emphasize importance of following questions: DONE
- Are all fields complete and correct?
- Library description, specialty
- Desired partner location
- Reason for desired partnership
- Preferred language
- Library still wants to participate? Why or why not? [included logic in survey to enable participants to decline and explain reasoning]
- Any success stories since posting?
• Check if library is in a city with a sister city or at least mention it in letter as an option FOR FUTURE COMMUNICATION
Follow up
• Email a thank you for completing questionnaire and remind them of other resources while they wait for a response from another library. Results
• We gathered the following responses:
- 25 yes
- 6 no
- 50 did not respond
- 3 did not have current email addresses
• Participants who responded yes have updated listings in the directory. The previous information was archived and a link to it put on the current listing.
• Participants who responded no or did not respond have archived listings (found under Archives link on home page) and are categorized under Ended Participation.
• New Additions, Unspecified Type, Joint Use, and Other categories were removed. All libraries now have an existing category. New additions are too difficult to maintain.
Goal: Review and Document Procedures IN PROGRESS
Action Target Date Complete Date
Collect submitter comments for possible improvements March? 5/30/2013
Answer outstanding questions 1/26/2013 (ALA Midwinter) Write up procedures 3/15/2013?
Publish finalized procedures to wiki 3/29/2013?
Outstanding questions
• How to make partnerships? Any active work from ALA Committee or continue as information source only?
• How to sustain communication and collect success stories? Quarterly email to all?
• How to keep info current? (partnership status, library details)
• Are instructions clear to submitters?
• U.S./ foreign connection or any matchup? Designed for U.S./foreign country match Feedback
• “We hope the evaluation will be done frequently.”
• “Between budget tightening and centralization, it is difficult for a branch library to continue with this program (we are just one branch in an urban library system with 22 locations).”
Goal: Review and Update Success Stories
Action Target Date Complete Date
Review existing partnerships’ websites for current info June?
Send email requesting status and updates of partnerships June?
Write up updated success stories July?
Implement suggestions for improvement July?
Outstanding questions
• Send customized emails to participants?
• What format should updates be in? Email? Another survey?
Discussion points
Wiki format
• Participants can easily update their directory listing
- they don’t do it currently
• Simple formatting
- easy to maintain, once code is understood
- not particularly attractive • Spammers target wikis
- need to be vigilant
- From Media Wiki [1]:
WikiSpam is the wiki equivalent of e-mail and blog spam. Wiki spammers edit pages to include advertising links to their sites. Spam links appear as full URLS (e.g. http://example.com), as named links with a spam keyword, or as numbered links (e.g. [1]). Often a spammer will completely replace the legitimate content of a page with their spam, and may add many different links, with a range of URLS and keywords.
Other nasty spammers (such as spambots) will edit a mass of pages in few minutes, even replacing good links with bad links such as vandalizing article references. ...
Always use the recent changes display to watch for spam. It is not enough to just look at the important pages of your wiki. Spammers have been known to find sneaky ways creating spam pages on a wiki in places where they may go unnoticed. This is particularly a problem on MediaWiki software (see MediaWiki Default Pages Spam), but all edits will appear on 'Recent changes' unless you are hiding minor edits. Go to preferences on your wiki, and under the 'recent changes' settings, check you are not hiding minor edits.
If you haven't checked 'recent changes' in a long time, then you may need to show the last 500 edits in the last 30 days. Click on the links at the top, or edit the page URL to set this time limit to even longer.
- From MediaWiki [2]: Common tools used to combat wiki spam typically fall into these categories:
Requiring log in and/or a CAPTCHA on certain operations, such as edits, adding external links, or new user creation
Blocking edits from known blacklisted IP addresses or IPs running open proxies
Blocking edits which add specific unwanted keywords or external links
Blocking specific username and page title patterns commonly used by spambots
Blocking edits by new or anonymous users to specific often-targeted pages
Whitelisting known-good editors (such as admins, regular contributors) while placing restrictions on new or anonymous users
Cleanup scripts or bulk deletion (Nuke) of existing posts from recently-banned spambots Normally a combination of various methods will be used, in an attempt to keep the number of spam, robot and open-proxy edits to a minimum while limiting the amount of disruption caused to legitimate users of the site.
Note that many of these features are not activated by default. If you are running a MediaWiki installation on your server/host, then you are the only one who can make the necessary configuration changes! By all means ask your users to help watch out for wiki spam (and do so yourself) but these days spam can easily overwhelm small wiki communities. It helps to raise the bar a little. You should also note however, that none of these solutions can be considered completely spam-proof. Always visit 'Recent changes' (Special:RecentChanges) periodically!
• ALA servers are slow Participation
• Currently, ALASL provides only a directory and suggestions for forming a partnership. What further actions, if any, can the committee undertake to help?
• Updates and success stories are now a passive activity. If a library wants to send us updates, they can. How can the committee more actively sustain communication and collect success stories? Quarterly email to all?
Outstanding tasks
Send thank you email to respondents
Site permissions
• Currently, anyone can become a registered users and update content.
• Administrator privileges enable a person to delete pages and do other upper-level tasks. Delin says the previous chairs had the permissions and she is tracking down who that would be.
• Shu-Hua does not have admin privileges at this time.
Site content
• The home page is heavy with text and subsidiary pages are much lighter.
- Re-organize content to make the home page lighter and easier to read.
- Make sure subsidiary pages are up to date, clear, and easy to use. Justine is marking up
suggested edits.
• A template for directory listings would make adding new institutions easier and consistent. Including all the categories to choose from will ease categorization.
• Some categorization is still inconsistent.
- Should we change top navigation on filtered category pages (e.g. Academic Libraries) to remove Middle East? Those countries are listed under Near East and South Asia [Shu-Hua]
• Broken links
- On Resources page: NCLIS -- Use https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/national-commission-on-libraries-and-information-science? Still good? Not updated since 1997
- On side nav:IRRT SL link s/b http://www.ala.org/irrt/irrtcommittees/irrtsisterlibrary/sisterlibrary; IRO link s/b http://www.ala.org/offices/iro/ Communications
• Who responds to emails?
Committee member tasks
• Current committee members are not named on site.
- Names and responsibilities?
