Advance your WordPress skills with this new eCourse

CHICAGO — ALA Editions announces a new eCourse, Advanced WordPress: Taking Your Web Presence to the Next Level facilitated by Michael Schofield. This six-week eCourse starts Monday, March 16, 2015.

If you've used WordPress to build a library blog or website, you know what an incredible tool it can be. But there’s much more to WordPress than building a site. More advanced users can use WordPress to create resources such as advance registration and scheduling tools, integrate web-based programs, or allow your website to interface with other software through an Application Programming Interface (API).

If you’re eager to move from basic proficiency to advanced skills in WordPress, knowing where to start is crucial. In this eCourse, Michael Schofield, a Web developer who specializes in library sites, will help you focus your attention so you can decide how to proceed. You’ll learn about the advanced capabilities of WordPress and how they can apply to your library, along with steps for putting them in place.

After participating in this eCourse, you will:

• have a working knowledge of the many advanced WordPress tools, helping you determine which ones will enhance your library website;
• gain a thorough understanding of WordPress’s hooks and actions, themes and plugins and how they can be extended programmatically, as well as a working knowledge of PHP;
• understand pressing and ancillary issues like content silos, APIs and C.O.P.E. (create once, publish everywhere) systems;
• discover forums, websites and literature that can help you stay current on emerging WordPress trends.

About the Instructor

Michael Schofield is a front-end developer specializing in user experience and design for libraries. He writes and speaks about cutting-edge standards and the Web and otherwise tries to push the #libweb forward. He curates Web For Libraries, runs a popular developer night, teaches junior high school students to write Sass and animate CSS Pandas and is a WordCamp Organizer. He is currently librarian of Web Services at the Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center in Florida.

Registration for this ALA Editions eCourse, which begins on March 16, 2015, can be purchased at the ALA Store. Participants in this course will need regular access to a computer with an Internet connection for online message board participation, viewing online video, listening to streaming audio (MP3 files), and downloading and viewing PDF and PowerPoint files.

ALA Editions publishes resources used worldwide by tens of thousands of library and information professionals to improve programs, build on best practices, develop leadership, and for personal professional development. ALA authors and developers are leaders in their fields, and their content is published in a growing range of print and electronic formats. Contact ALA Editions at (800) 545-2433 ext. 3244 or editionscoursehelp@ala.org.

ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness, and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide.