ALA Website Advisory Committee (WAC)

ALA Annual Conference

Toronto, Ontario
Monday, June 23, 2003

MINUTES

WAC members in attendance: Rory Litwin (Chair), Sue Calbreath (PLA), George Porter (RUSA, pro tempore), Michelle Frisque (LITA), Diane Bisom (LAMA), Alan Bern (ALSC), Abigail Leah Plumb (intern)

WAC members absent: John Duke (ALCTS), Valerie Wilford, Pam Berger (AASL), Rhonda K. Channing (ACRL), Francis Picart (ALTA), Audrey Gorman (ASCLA), Tracey Firestone (YALSA), Jon Cawthorne (Publishing)
Invitees to meeting in Chicago: Karen Schneider, Jessamyn West, Thomas Dowling, Holly Yu

Staff: Debi Lewis, Sherri Vanyek, Karen Muller, Mary Ghikas

Guests: Zoe Stewart-Marshall, James B. Casey, Diane Dates Casey, Brendan Dowling, Kathleen Hughes

1. Meeting called to order -- 9:58 am

2. Minutes of 1/21/2003 meeting.

Approved.

3. Recap/follow-up of special meeting (RL).

Discussion: Timelines for short- and long-term changes; also some concerns centering around the Web update page the site will feature.

4. Overview on follow-up (DL)

Discussion: Introduction of Debi Lewis as the buck-stops-here point person on ALA staff. ActiveMatter’s response to the Tick List. Various other concerns AM might not have adequately addressed, including a “cite the page” button. The issue of notifying users which content was unavailable, and how to do this best. How to distinguish between obsolete and unconverted. Search engine problems; Debi described ways to make the indexing process more transparent to users. Brief, detailed discussion of the ins and outs of the search engine. Committee briefly reviewed the calendar and Karen Muller mailed to the committee’s e-list; send further comments to Debi Lewis.

Outcome: Debi Lewis will produce a status report on what has yet to be converted by July 3rd. Timeline: the tick list problems should be fixed by mid-August with testing to conclude around Labor Day.

5. Council resolutions (KS)

Discussion: Karen Schneider has introduced a resolution to place the Web site within the direct purview of the executive board. A second resolution will establish the importance of applying ALA archiving policy to the Web site.

6. Questions for Mary Ghikas

Discussion: WAC needs a reorg chart for IT, including Debi Lewis'; new position. Discussion of whether Debi Lewis and Sherri Vanyek can be dual staff liaisons.

Outcome: Mary will see that the committee gets a reorg chart, and will let Keith Michael Fiels know that we would like DL and SV to be dual staff liaisons.

6. Reviewing WAC committee charge

Discussion: Is it more important to concentrate on carrying out our current charge in different ways?

Quorum lost -- 11:55 am

Further Discussion

A. Style Guide

Discussion: Can there be a formal style manual for linking, URL naming, etc? Consistency is important.

Discussion: What about a content manual?

Outcome: A style task force will be convened.

B. Feedback Forms

Discussion: Who is feedback@ and who is webmaster@? What forms should feedback take? What kind of feedback form should be up?

Meeting adjourned – 12:32 pm

Prepared by Abigail Leah Plumb.