Re-imagining libraries on the web: a case study of the Stanford University Libraries website redesign

Drupal has become the web platform of choice in academia, and in particular for research libraries. The role of libraries has been evolving rapidly in this era of information ubiquity, and their online presence has become more important than ever for providing scholars and students a trusted environment in which to find resources, build research communities, and get expert help. Libraries also face a unique set of challenges in supporting the academic process in an era of information overload, copyright confusion and an increasingly tech-savvy scholarly community with access to online information far beyond the walls of the ivory tower.

We’ll describe the transformation of the Stanford University Libraries’ online presence using Drupal and a fiercely user-centered design and engineering process. We’ll chronicle the redesign and rebuild process from end to end, highlighting not only the technical challenges and solutions, but also some of the social and organizational dynamics of a major web overhaul.

Specifically, we’ll discuss and demonstrate:

  • the continuous and iterative nature of the user-research and testing process, and its impacts on site effectiveness and stakeholder buy-in.
  • a collaborative and agile design and implementation process that included Stanford-based and Chapter Three engineers.
  • how we integrated Drupal with a Solr-based search API to provide comprehensive search results from both the Drupal site and online library catalog.
  • how we integrated Drupal with our library hours system for an elegant solution to providing hours information for over 25 locations across 365 days a year.
  • how we used Panelizer, the IPE, fieldable panel panes, and custom widgets to improve the content creation user experience.
  • a novel, manageable (and simple) approach to building sites within the site (microsites) using the reliable old Book module, so that Stanford’s 14 branch libraries and countless special projects could easily and independently build their own web presences while retaining the identity and information architecture of the main library site.
Schedule info
Status: 
Proposed
Session Info
Speaker(s): 
snydman
mksweet
Track: 
Government, Nonprofit, and Education
Experience level: 
Beginner

Comments

zchandler's picture zchandler replied on

I am very interested in learning more about the details of this project, from planning through implementation. I have heard Stu talk before about iterative user testing, the costs of that approach and the rewards, and I frequently refer people to him to hear this story. It would be great for more people to hear it! I am also interested in hearing more about your implementation choices so that we might be able to learn from, and re-apply that pattern to other projects.

ccthompson's picture ccthompson replied on

Yes, and Yes. Many thanks. This is perfect for us University types but also for any one building a site!