This week's exercise included using an open source content management system - Joomla - to create articles, a menu bar, and experiment with website layout. This exercise coincided with our reading on libraries and their use of CMS in managing their web presence.
I decided to create a site that aggregated top news stories in religion. I modified the "Getting Started" page as the homepage to introduce my site and created two news articles linked in the top menu bar. I also changed some of the colors in the template, changed the article details information and location on each page, and created my own "About the Author" module.
Having already had Information Architecture last semester, I found this exercise to be a fun way to reuse some HTML and CSS tricks learned in the previous course. I was able to learn these skills to modify the positioning, size, and padding of images in each of my articles.
I have only scratched the surface of Joomla in this exercise. Learning how a CMS functions and operates seems challenging, but its features have the capacity to enhance and improve a library's web presence. Judging from this exercise, management of CMS is certainly a specialized knowledge. Libraries adopting a CMS must have staff in place to handle such a transition as well as understanding the importance of information architecture and fundamental coding.
On a personal note, I have really been thinking about how to keep my HTML and CSS skills going forward since I do not necessarily see web design as a main feature of my career path. However, such skills are always a benefit and I've wondered which online tools would allow me to cultivate these skills. I've thought of using something like Joomla as my online portfolio so that I could continue to tinker with HTML and CSS. There are also some cheap web hosting services out there that give you more freedom in coding, but Joomla is definitely a resource I'm going to consider for my portfolio.
My Joomla Page
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