What is that, anyway?

[Rebecca]

I think that it would be kind of fun and informative if we include a section of our Ning where we can answer questions for ourselves, and possibly others, about various tools and terms with which we are unfamiliar. For instance, in class, I kept hearing the word "Drupal." All of the students who work in libraries seem to know what this is, but I had no idea. So I looked it up. Here is what I found:

Drupal is an open source content management platform. A content management computer application is one that is used for creating, managing and editing the contents of a web page in an organized way. As an open source platform, Drupal allows a user or a community of users to publish and maintain a big variety of content that is continually changing. Drupal is a useful software package for libraries because it is dynamic and easy to use. In an article about using Drupal in libraires, ALA TechSource says: "Libraries are about content--acquiring it, storing it, indexing it, retrieving it and providing it. Content management systems help libraries accomplish this by providing a back end structure for a website so the authors can focus on content." (Drupal in Libraries) So basically, Drupal gives libraries an easy and user-friendly way to create dynamic and media-rich websites.

For more information about Drupal:
The Drupal Website
Drupal in Libraries. ALA TechSource


A Drupal overview video from Drupaldude at YouTube:

[Lisa]

Drupal is an open social software tool that has the benefit of moderation. It's good for libraries that aren't really ready for letting people have free rein on the site.

[Chris]

You'll be hearing much more about Drupal in our in-class presentation, for better or worse!

[Rebecca]

Lindsay, I think it is a great idea to have a question and answer section. The law librarian blog that I like has lots of question/answer type posts, but they are all kind of spread throughout all of the forums. I think having a specific place for questions and answers is a little more structured and nice. I can set that up if everyone wants to do it.

[Lindsay]

I think it is a good idea to have a question answer section. Should we set this up as another forum?

[Beth Ringsmuth Stolpman]

The library where I work is using Drupal to re-vamp our website. It looks pretty slick so far--we've started the website overhaul with our internal staff pages and will move on to our main site in the coming months. It's exciting stuff!