Drupal Library Website Development Workshop Series

In December 2011, LibraryLinkNJ announced the Mobile Pilot Project – New Jersey Libraries-On-The-Go for FY2012. The goal of the project is to ensure that member libraries have a mobile presence useful to, and used by, their customers. One of the project's goals is to offer a series of in-person meetings and training for libraries that wish to transform their website using Drupal. Libraries that wish to build a mobile site and use Drupal as a back-end content management system for it will want to participate in this Drupal Library Website Development Workshop Series.

Drupal is a powerful open source content management platform and its user community is growing by leaps and bounds.

• Drupal allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website.
• A Drupal website enables libraries to enhance their web presence by giving a more dynamic and intereactive user experience to their customers.
• Drupal also works extremely well as a back-end content management system for mobile websites. 

For these reasons, a Drupal option is incorporated into LibraryLinkNJ's Mobile Pilot Project. 

LibraryLinkNJ is also working on details for another Continuing Education program on Library-generated mobile websites, which will be announced in late March. The program will be offered in the late Spring.

We will go with the most current release version, Drupal 7,  for this workshop series. The training level for the workshop series will be a combination of content for beginner and intermediate-level learners.  Towards the end of the training series, we will schedule additional advanced-level trainings and will open it up to the general membership, so that libraries that already have a Drupal-based site and want to polish it up with more advanced settings may do so.

Eligibility for Participation

• Member public, school, academic libraries and library-related agencies that are in good standing are eligible to participate in this workshop series.
• Each participating library will be required to designate and send a staff member to all meetings and training sessions and must commit to launch their website as shown in the project schedule.
• Each library can send only one staff member since the training space is limited.
• Participating libraries must commit to launch their Drupal Website by Friday, Sept. 14, 2012.
• Participating libraries need to meet the system requirements to host a Drupal site. Libraries must commit to use either their own web server or an outsourced web hosting service. Whichever option they choose, they have to meet the system requirements (http://drupal.org/requirements). LibraryLinkNJ will provide a VPS (Virtual Private Server) for development sites for participating libraries while the workshop series is ongoing. Participating libraries must transfer their site at the end of the workshop series. The workshop training will cover how to move the site. We will help libraries migrate their site if they decide to go with an outsourced web hosting service.  An excellent hosting plan may cost $49/month.
• Participating libraries are expected to have the staff time, resources, and funds to maintain their website in the future.

How to Register

This series is offered at two different locations, so please choose the location that is most convenient for you. Member libraries interested in participating in this workshp series must fill out the Registration Form and Eligibility Statement online. We request that the registration form is filled out by the library director (public, academic, and library-related agencies) or the head librarian of the library (school) or a library staff member with the authority to make the commitment for the library. The registation deadline is extended to Friday, April 6 on a first come, first served basis. When the registration is filled, we will ask participating libraries to send us the information for the staff who will be attending the workshop series. Please note that this is the person who will be implementing your library's Drupal website.

Schedule & Location

If you have any questions, please contact Mi-Sun Lyu at lyu [at] librarylinknj.org.