Minutes of the Web Advisory Committee

Minutes of the Web Advisory Committee

Wednesday, March 7, 2012 from 2:30-4:00 p.m.

Knowledge Innovation Technology Lab (KITL), 3rd Floor OISE

Present: Monique Flaccavento (Chair), Patricia Bellamy (Robarts), Maria Buda (Dentistry), Sarah Forbes (UTSC), Pam King (UTM), Lari Langford (Robarts), Marc Lalonde (ITS), Judith Logan (Robarts), Kate MacDonald (Trinity), James Mason (Music), Janina Mueller (Map & Data), Jen Robertson (Robarts), Michelle Spence (Engineering & Computer Science), Susanne Tabur (Gerstein), Andrew McAlorum (ITS), Angela Hamilton (UTSC)

Regrets: Heather Cunningham (Gerstein), Carla Hagstrom (Gerstein), Susan Stone (Robarts), Rita Vine (Gerstein), Margaret Wall (Robarts)

1. Selection of minute taker: Sarah Forbes

2. Welcome to new members: Andrew McAlorum (ITS), Angela Hamilton (UTSC)

3. Minutes of February 1, 2012 meeting: approved

4. Business arising from the minutes

a. Drupal Training: Marc will offer a full-day workshop for staff with websites moving over to Drupal on March 29 & 30.

b. FAQ Pages update: all except one loans and fines FAQ on have been inserted into the new Library FAQ system. It was suggested that the request an item FAQ would be added by Elena Springhall and the Resource Sharing Committee. Once this is done, Marc should be notified so he can remove old pages on the website.

c. ASK widget: Marc is still working on the design. For now the Ask a Librarian service is highlighted on the website. The widget will be brought forth for further discussion at the Reference Services Meeting next week.

5. Updates from Marc Lalonde

All central libraries should be able to shut down Plone sites by Fall 2012
Workshops will be occurring at the end of the month to help staff setup theirsites in Drupal – prefer to have only one person per library website attend these sessions
The Collection Development pages have moved into Drupal ( These pages now have new left side navigation menus (styling similar to Google look and feel)
The new Contact Us page ( is live. This new page provides a simplified help menu with a responsive web style that can work on multiple platforms.

6. Web Analytics Group (Jen Robertson)

a.IP ranges for internal/external/staff website statistics: Marc and Jen will meet to find a way to create multiple profiles per IP range so we can track off and on-campus use of the website.

b.Redundancies on the homepage / navigation menu: Marc and Jen will look at filtering out finding ways to map/separate out redundancies on the homepage. This can be potentially be done using heat mapping in Drupal, or adding parameters to the url to view what is/isn't being used and can possibly be eliminated from the navigation.

c.Tracking external links: Marc and Jen will start to examine external linking on the website by adding Google tracking code to a short list of links. Monique suggested tracking OISE podcast downloads. The group will send a list of suggestions of links to examine to Marc.

d.Analyzing least-used website content: The group determined after examining reports of least used content that it is more efficient to focus on certain areas of the website instead. We will begin by examining ‘Computers and
Connecting’ under the Services menu.

7. Popular Databases Page (Judith/Patricia)

Judith presented the new blended approach to the Popular Databases page.
The page will have a Subjects A-Z link at the top of the page and databases grouped as sub-items under major vendor platforms.

Changes to the page:

The first sentence about popular databases was reworded.

It was decided to remove Summon from the list since users can easily search Summon directly from the homepage.
Factiva will be moved from underneath Engineering Village to stand on its own.
Web of Science and BIOSIS will be added under Web of Knowledge.
The rationale for keeping the title as ‘Popular Databases’ was discussed. It was decided that people like the title and it attracts users to the page (listed 4th on the Google Analytics chart).
Judith will revise the page and send it to Marc so the page can be updated - final version of the page available at

8. Local Digital Special Collections (Andrew)

Andrew showed a test page showing a new look for the Local Special Digital Collections page.
The name of the page and location of the collection within the site navigation were discussed. The collections can be hard to find since they’re not present on high level navigation.
Examples of similar collections were shownto provide some context:
LOC -
Yale -
UCLA library -
UNC -
NCSU - (UTL web inspired by their design) –large flyout menus might be considered for use on our site.

Changes to the pages:
Local Digital Special Collections will be renamed Digital Collections
Print Special Collections will be renamed Special Collections
The Special Collections link will move in the navigation menu so that it’s more visible
Libraries and content not related to special or digital collections will be removed from the spotlight feature at the bottom right of the homepage
The content of the pages will need to be examined/updated at a later date (sub-committee?)

9. About us drop-down menu: How can it be simplified?

Changes to the About Us menu:

Hours* – remove the flyout to the sub menu
Libraries* –remove the flyout to the sub menu – hospital libraries and library departments will be moved to sub navigation below the A-Z navigation on theList of Libraries page
Library facts – rename Library stats
Library news – ask Margaret Wall for input
Remove the Support the Libraries link (as long as it is prominentlydisplayed somewhere on the homepage)

* The Web Analytics Group should track the Hours and Libraries pages to help future decision-making about whether these items should remainlisted in the About Us menu.

10. Redundancies in navigation on the homepage

Monique provided excel spreadsheets for the committee to review.
This item has been tabled until the next meeting.

Next meeting: April 4, 2012, 2:30-4:00 p.m. in the KITL, 3rd floor, OISE.