Matthew Reidsma

Work Notes

Updates from the GVSU Libraries’ Web Team.
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New Additions to the GVSU Web World

Last week, 2 new things appeared in the GVSU web universe! After two long years of planning and work and then replanning and more work and doing a little more planning and some more work, the Special Collections and University Archives site has been redesigned! Nancy and Annie have worked hard on getting content into the new site, and it looks great. Max was a big help, too, as we worked out the technical details, but he went to work somewhere else before we could launch the site. Anyway, have a browse through these unique collections, and let us know what you think!

We’re not quite done; we have got some plans for the future of the Special Collections and University Archives site. Our goal is to create a unified search and access point for these unique holdings, meaning that folks would be able to search for and see all items in each colletion, regardless of which vendor tool “owned” the content. Right now content is a bit all over the place:

  • Finding Aids in Archives Space
  • Book Collections in the catalog
  • Digital Collections in CONTENTdm and/or Preservica
  • Streaming media is Ensemble Video

Annie has made sure that each collection on the new site links to all of the relevant materials for the collection, which is a huge step up in access from the old site. But once we solve some of the technical challenges with tying all of these diferent systems together, we’ll put out an update to the site. Don’t look for that until next winter, though. (That’s the part of the site that made this redesign take 2 years and counting already!)

In addition, Mary and the folks in R&I have put together a new web page on resources for faculty that teach online and hybrid courses: gvsu.edu/library/instruction/online. If you have questions or suggestions for the page, let us know! It’s a great resource for a growing part of the University.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.