Minutes of the UTL Web Advisory Committee

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

OISE 3rd Floor KITL

Present: James Mason (Music, Chair), Monique Flaccavento (OISE),Jen Robertson (CDD, Robarts,Math),Margaret Wall (Communications), Heather Cunningham (Gerstein), Heather Buchansky (Student Engagement), Carla Hagstrom (Gerstein), Lisa Gayhart (ITS, Robarts), Gordon Belray (ITS, Robarts)

Regrets: Tracy Zahradnik (Dentistry, Engineering/Computer Science), Marc Lalonde (ITS), Angela Hamilton (UTSC), Michelle Spence (Engineering/Computer Science), Judith Logan (Robarts), Kate MacDonald (Trinity)

  1. Selection of a minutes-taker:
  2. Jen Robertson volunteered
  3. Minutes of the April 2nd, 2014meeting
  4. Accepted as written.
  5. Business arising from the minutes
  6. None.
  7. Updates from ITS (Lisa, Gordon)
  • Lisa described recent activities surrounding the UTL website redesign project. ITS is currently conducting user research, collecting background information, and reaching out to different areas to get a sense of where people have had issues, what they did/did not like, and exploring better ways of accessing information. In-person feedback sessions have been conducted at Robarts and UTSC, and UTM has a session in June.
  • Preferences that have emerged are simple, clean pages, a large search box with fewer options, and grouping information together to reduce the amount of jumping around.
  • A few more events are coming up and thenITS will pull all the information together, make some recommendations, and start building the website. Developers have been preparing the development site and ITS hasstarted designing wireframes based on the feedback already gathered.
  • The next step after putting the information together is to start looking at existing website content. Judith will be seconded to the team to perform a content audit of the website. She will also review and update the website style guide.
  • Gordon demonstrated examples of how the data might be grouped on the new website, including different content themes, buttons on a vertical bar for commonly used resources (hours, search, etc.), examples of the A-Z subject list, the new Hong Kong website, etc.
  • Some interesting statistics: 87% of website searches use the OneSearch button and 20-25% of activity on the website is searching.
  • ITS will be posting news items and samples on the ITS website as the project develops to gather quick feedback. Lisa will give regular updates at WAC meetings.
  • James asked about resources/guidance for non-central sites or sites outside of Drupal on merging news feeds into the new website.
  1. Updates from the Web Analytics Group (Jen)
  • Jen reported that completion of the web statistics page is delayed as ITS takes stock of all available sources of web analytics data with the goal to provide a more complete picture of web usage at UTL.
  • With ITS focusing on developing the new UTL website and taking on a more active role in the administration of Google Analytics, the Web Analytics Group requested feedback from WAC on the continuing purpose of the group. The group was originally formed to explore Google Analytics and provide web usage statistics to inform WAC decision-making with a focus on website navigation.
  • Lisa has been taking on more web analytics responsibilities as part of her role and could be the point-person for ITS.
  • Suggestions included having the group continue in an advisory role to ITS and meeting less frequently or on-demand, or dissolving the group and calling on the group’s members within WAC and other interested people for web analytics input as necessary.
  • ACTION: Many members of the Web Analytics Groupcould not be present. The group will revisit the discussion at their next meeting and report back to WAC.
  • ACTION: ITS will continue to consolidate web analytics data. Lisa will continue discussions with ITS and bring feedback to the next Web Analytics Group meeting.
  1. Adding text and feedback form to the Contact Us page (Margaret)
  • Margaret demonstrated feedback links with example text and asked for suggestions on link placement on the Contact Us page. The feedback links lead to a new feedback form that submits entries to Margaret.
  • Discussion included using an icon vs. text and link placement above the Contact Us box, in a sidebar, or within the email bock.
  • Monique mentioned that OISE receives almost no submissions to their feedback form, but that it can be good PR. Twitter sees more activity than feedback links.
  • ACTION: Margaret will send the details to ITS and they will experiment with link placement.
  1. UTL Social Media ideas (Heather B)
  • Idea of social media presence in the library catalogue
  • The social media subgroup (part of the Outreach Committee) has been working on a social media best practices guide and is interested in ways of integrating social media into the library catalogue.
  • Heather displayed examples from U Chicago, Harvard, Library of Congress, and TPL (WorldCat Discovery has social media built in) and introduced the free AddThis API.
  • Lisa reported on staff feedback during last year’s outreach for the new catalogue. Staff questioned the academic nature of the feature or didn’t think people would use it.
  • What parts of the catalogue would be considered shareable? What about being able to text yourself a catalogue record? At this time, it is not possible to share a marked list because it is not persistent. The record detail and search results pages are persistent.
  • ACTION: Send Sian/Bilal a list of the top sharing platforms for integration into the catalogue now so that the request can be integrated into the current 2-week Endeca sprint.
  • Standardized social media widget location on UTL websites
  • Looking for best practices for creating a profile and would also recommendestablishingstandardlocation(s) for social media widgets on UTL websites (e.g. top, bottom, quick links, header, etc.)
  1. Other
  • The group agreed to continue meeting at OISE.

Next meeting: Wednesday, July2, 2:30 pm, KITL

1