Date post: | 15-Jul-2015 |
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Content Strategy for
Library Websites
Rebecca Blakiston
@blakistonr
User Experience Librarian
University of Arizona Libraries
DESIGNING FOR DIGITAL
February 26, 2015
@design4lib
Providing good content is an essential part of our library mission…
and yet our locally-curated web content is often totally neglected.
Introducing content strategy
“Content strategy plans
for the creation,
publication, and
governance of useful,
usable content.”
- Kristina Halvorson
@halvorson
Audit
By understanding what we have, we can better plan how to manage what already exists as well as plan for the future.
Libguides?
Tutorials?
Videos?
Images?
Online exhibitions?
Digital collections?
News stories?
Blog posts?
Social media?
Catalog?
Login pages?
User accounts?
Discovery tool(s)?
Interlibrary loan system?
Associated websites?
Associated applications?
Define your goals and scope.
• Pull a page list from your content management system.
• Follow links from your homepage, then follow links
within web pages.
Identify your content.
If you find a page such as
library.edu/info/software
See if there is a page at just:
library.edu/info
homepage childgrandchild
Title Responsible
Department
Web Writing Usefulness Relevancy Audience
Events Marketing Good Average High Community
Collections Collection
Managers
Average High Low Faculty
Newspapers Research
Services
Just awful Average Medium Graduate
Students
Evaluate your content.
Duplicate content?
Be transparent and get buy-in.
Here’s what we
found. Here’s how
we want to make
things better.
Let’s talk.
Analysis
By analyzing our current environment and defining our website objectives, we can set a strategic foundation for future directions.
Sample vision:
We champion student and faculty success by giving them access to the spaces, technology, collections and expertise needed for their research, teaching, studying and collaboration.
Review current maintenance & oversight processes.
Departments•Responsible for big
sections on the website
•Can draft & update pages
Department
webmasters
•Responsible for page updates
•Varies by department (not every dept. has a webmaster)
Website Steering Group
•Responsible for publishing and deleting pages
Strategy
By establishing an effective and efficient content strategy, we ensure that our website content is and continues to be useful, usable, and findable.
Goals
1. Content focused
2. Accessible
3. Usable
4. Findable
5. Familiar
6. Engaging
7. Understandable
8. Credible
9. Human
Write actionable and measurable* goals for your website.
*Metrics for content are hard, but not impossible.
We will capture your ideas then send to all staff for a sort.
helpful
friendly
reliable
people-focused
traditional
unmoving
fun
Who we are
fun
Establish a voice & tone.
future:easy-to-use
cutting-edge
consistent
engaging
people-focused
now:knowledgeable
friendly
helpful
academic
customer-focused
but never:exclusive
static
old school
traditional
quirky
Define content roles and responsibilities.
Role Responsibility
Requestor Requests new content, content edits, or content
deletions
Provider Provides content for publication on the web
Manager Edits, improves, and manages the lifecycle of web
content
Reviewer Reviews content before it’s published on the web
Publisher Publishes content to the web
Clearly define responsibilities for
those who actually
manage content.Evaluating
Creating
UpdatingImproving
Deleting
Content manager expectations:
• Stay aware of policies, procedures, standards, workflows
• Ensure all content meets standards and follow standards for new content
• Review all content regularly, no less than once every six months
• Create new content• Use Google Analytics to make decisions• Attend trainings• Communicate changes in content• Be open to & respond to feedback
Requestor requests a page
Provider creates content
Manager creates web page
Reviewer approves web page
New web page is created
Establish a workflow for
creating a page.
Content Manager determines page should be deleted
Content Manager communicates with stakeholders
Content Manager removes or updates all internal links, determines if a redirect is necessary
Content Manager sends deletion request to Publisher
Publisher deletes the page
Establish a workflow for
deleting a page.
Enter event data once.Current events sort by date
Events move
when they're
over
You don't need to worry about formatting
content - it's all handled globally.
Structure your content.
Learn more
Library Juice Academy: Developing a Website Content Strategy (4-week online course, October 2015)
Blakiston, R. Developing a Content Strategy for an Academic Library Website, Journal of Electronic Resources
Librarianship, 25:3, 175-191. 2013.
Halvorson, K. Content Strategy for the Web second edition. 2012.
Kissane, E. The Elements of Content Strategy. 2010.