The responsibilities of the #libweb are exploding [it’s a good thing] and it’s no longer uncommon for libraries to manage or even home-grow multiple applications and sites. Often it’s at this point where we begin to suffer the absence of a content strategy when, say, business hours need to be updated sitewide a half-dozen times.
We were already feeling this crunch when we decided to further complicate the Nova Southeastern University Libraries by splitting the main library website into two. The Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center is a unique joint-use facility that serves not only the academic community but the public of Broward County - and marketing a hyperblend of content through one portal just wasn't cutting it. With a web team of two, we knew that managing all this rehashed, disparate content was totally unsustainable.
I want to share in this talk how I went about making library content DRY (“don’t repeat yourself”): input content in one place—blurbs, policies, featured events, featured databases, book reviews, business hours, etc.—and syndicate it everywhere - to specific audiences, too.