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Writing for the Web: A Primer for Librarians
by Eric H. Schnell
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Those who administer even the smallest of library Web sites find
out quickly that the task of maintaining URL's, hypertext links, and annotations is very time consuming. The
manual coding of documents using HTML and maintaining of the associated document
file system is a very time consuming process. Maintaining larger Web sites requires even more time and effort and, in many cases, requires a full-time Web Manager.
One possible way to reduce maintenance time may be
through the use of database technology to create dynamic documents. With dynamic
documents, all the files (Web documents, media files, etc.) are assembled
together and viewed as site assets. These assets are then added individually to a database system
along with other identifying information. When a patron makes a request, the resulting
document is created on-the-fly and contains those items which match the query.
There are some advantages to this approach. Dynamic documents reduce dependence on handcoding using HTML. As a result, new assets can be added by library staff without the need to understand HTML. The responsibility of
maintaining certain content, library hours or staff information for example, could shift to staff members, including Administrative Assistants. Adding and maintaining dynamic content can even be done with a Web interface. Developing this type of system will require expertise and development time, but once
completed it should require little to no technical maintenance.
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