Week 7 Reading Notes

HTML Tutorial - w3schools.com

HTML = Hypertext Markup Language, uses markup tags, governed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Tags: surrounded by angle brackets, come in pairs (start/opening tag and end/closing tag), ex.

HTML documents = web pages

• Headings: h1 to h6 tags
• Paragraphs: p
• Images: img
• Line break: br [empty, not in a pair]
• Links: a href = "" [attribute]
• Bold: b
• Italics: i
• Table rows: tr
• Table data: td
• Unordered list (bullets): ul
• Ordered list: ol

Tags can be nested, not case sensitive

Do not use tag

Style HTML with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Colors defined with hexadecimal notation (HEX) or 147 color names

I'd used some html in the past to create simple webpages when I was younger, but it's been a while, so this was a good refresher. It's also interesting to hear about the evolution of HTML and how it is developed and governed.

Webmonkey HTML Cheatsheet Guide

Basic tags: html, head, body

Header tags: title

Text tags: pre, h1, h6, tt, cite, em, strong

Formatting: p, p align, br, blockquote, dl, dt, dd, ol, li, ul, div align

Forms: form, option, select multiple name, select name, textarea name, input type: "checkbox/radio/submit/image"

Graphical elements: img src, hr, hr size, hr width, hr noshade

Links: a href, a href: mailto, a name

This looks like a very helpful cheatsheet that boils down the basic tags you need to know to write HTML. I'm assuming there will be a future assignment that involves creating an HTML document, so I will be sure to remember this as a useful resource.

Beyond HTML: Developing and Re-imagining Library Web Guides in a Content Management System

Content management system designed to manage 30 web-based research guides - new system developed with MySQL and ASP

Georgia State University (GSU) Library

Before: FrontPage maintained by single librarian, with 15 liaison librarians developing web guides, later more liaisons added

Result: Inconsistency, some with web design experience and some not

• Content management (CM) = process of collecting, managing, and publishing content

CMS: content is disconnected from design and layout, content can be resource links or text or images or files, content can be reused

• Control
• Customization and context
• Complexity

Steps toward CMS environment: commercial option, open source option, in-house option

GSU Library CMS technology = MySQL database of resource tables, metadata tables, and personnel metadata tables, usable CMS research guide template for students and librarians

• Move to CMS = success
• Systems can be expanded to other departments (committee websites, intranet)
• Some still need further training
• Templates now, but in future users will use raw content

While I didn't understand some of the more technical aspects of this paper, I think I understand the basic concept that GSU libraries developed their own CMS for various reasons. Their new system made things more consistent and of more benefit to users. If I understand correctly, this article is meant to show how to standardize the use of HTML among large groups of people, with the template set up for use by liaisons.