WebJunction - Group: WordPress for Libraries (wp4lib)

Any WP MU (multi-user) users out there?

2009-11-12T00:06:57Z

Do most of you just live w/ a single install of WP or do you use MU to allow multiple blogs from the same install?

Wordpress themes

2009-10-12T16:59:46Z

What's your favorite book or website for learning to build (or modify) Wordpress themes?

Thinking of WordPress as a CMS

2009-04-10T15:56:31Z

For anyone thinking about WordPress to run their website (not just a blog), here's something that might help. Blogs are nothing more than very simple content management systems and blog posts are nothing more than chunks of content.

By some very simple manipulations of a WordPress theme (you never touch the actual core of WordPress) you can use those blog posts in all sorts of ways. For example, a blog post could be a book listing and by manipulating your theme templates and style sheets, those book listings can look completely different than a blog post used as an FAQ entry.

When you start to think of WordPress that way, it's not a question of whether it can do the job, but what jobs do you want it to do.

RE: OK, I am not sure...

2009-04-10T15:47:26Z

One of the most flexible is PhpList - http://www.tincan.co.uk/phplist (you can run multiple lists, email to many lists at once etc.) However, keep in mind that whatever server you're on will have email sending restrictions (typically around 200 per hour). The software allows you to batch large numbers on a schedule, but still... you run the risk of being labelled a spammer etc. To me, the $20 a month for a hosted service saves a lot of technical management headaches. For those kind of services, I recommend Aweber - it's much more powerful than Constant Contact (you can code where people came from, have separate signup systems for different groups, and much more).

RE: Welcome to wp4lib!

2009-04-10T15:20:43Z

I provide free WordPress video tutorials on my website SeeHowTwo.com and these tutorials are based on my experiences with client needs (I develop websites exclusively using WordPress).

There are so many people giving of their time in the WordPress community and this is one way for me to help give back.

I'm also happy to provide advice to librarians through this forum and I look forward to participating in the discussion.

RE: Welcome to wp4lib!

2009-02-26T18:01:08Z

Hi and welcome, Greg! Your horror site is great--I am a wimp and will most likely not be reading anything on your lists, but they are an excellent resource. It looks like you've got several people contributing to the blogs for your library, which is also great. I'd be interested in hearing how you do training and how you designate or schedule or whatever--who makes the decisions about content and when it gets posted and that sort of thing. It's one thing we're still struggling with on our webteam.

I apologize for this rather late response--I'm trying to get caught up on all kinds of stuff here, and I finally got to your post!

fantastic for-hire Wordpress consultant

2009-02-09T20:45:43Z

I wanted to make modifications to the theme I found in Wordpress.org, but wasn't familiar with php. In desperation, I contacted a for-hire Wordpress consultant, and had such fantastic results that I want to pass his name around. The URL for this consultant is http://www.problogdesign.com/. His name is Micheal, and he was extremely professional, fast, courteous, and CHEAP! I recommend his services without reservation. Now, I just need to insert our content and we'll be ready to go live. Jomichele Seidl, Assistant Chief Librarian, Powell River Public Library.

RE: Welcome to wp4lib!

2009-01-13T17:01:25Z

Hello,

My name is Greg Fisher and I've been using WordPress for a couple of years now. my personal website, ...With Intent to Commit Horror is a pet project of mine -- a readers' advisory website dedicated to the horror genre.

The administration at Cleveland Hts-University Hts Public Library liked what I did so much they asked me to make blogs for the library system. You can view the readers' advisory blos here. However we have blogs for Children's Dept., Teen Dept., and soon we'll have blogs for the tech trainers, as well as listener's advisory (music) and viewer's advisory (movies) blogs.

I'm looking forward to participating in the group.

Thanks,
--Greg

RE: using wordpress for small library's primary website

2008-12-04T21:05:18Z

Hi,

Sorry I'm so late in replying to you, but you've come to the right place! There are a bunch of examples of libraries using WordPress for websites at the wp4lib wiki (http://wp4lib.bluwiki.com). I run the Park County Library System website using WP, and I'd be happy to talk to you about the customizations we've made and so on.

This whole wp4lib community is still small, but I hope we can grown and share more ideas as time goes by.

Laura

using wordpress for small library's primary website

2008-11-30T02:19:51Z

Hi all,
We are thinking about using WordPress to create and manage our library website. Can anyone give me examples of other library's who are using it for this purpose, not just as a blog feature within a website? Any help would be much appreciated- Jomichele

RE: Upgrading to WordPress 2.5+

2008-11-20T03:24:54Z

yep; I'd create a new doc and embed the vid. we can link to it from the group main page if you want.

RE: Upgrading to WordPress 2.5+

2008-11-19T17:57:41Z

Great video, Laura! Thanks for sharing. I'm sure that will help folks quite a bit.

BTW, if you have embed code for the video you are welcome to post it here in the wp4lib group.

RE: Upgrading to WordPress 2.5+

2008-11-18T22:43:12Z

Yeah, we finally had to do the upgrade, and it turned out to be much less of a big deal than I'd thought it might be. I did have a wordpress.com account set up to let people try it out for a couple of months before the upgrade, and I also made a little movie to introduce people to the way it works. Anyone should feel free to borrow or steal it!

RE: Upgrading to WordPress 2.5+

2008-11-10T23:07:33Z

Hi Laura --

We wrestled with the same question here at WebJunction. We didn't want to "force" an upgrade on our Partners just so we could have the newest version of WP, however security updates made it mandatory.

So we did it. And we didn't hear a single complaint from any of our staff (some very occasional users) or Partners (so far, but this post may bring us one or two). I think for the most part, any current user will be able to adopt to 2.5+ with little hassle. They've done a good job in making new locations and buttons discoverable, and in some cases (handling of images, the image gallery, and embedded media) the improvements GREATLY outweigh the UI changes.

If you have any specific areas of concern that you want addressed, just let me know and I'll try to take a swing at them.

Best,
Tim King
(webjunction blog maven)

PS -- wordpress.com is on the "latest" version of WP. It only takes a couple minutes to set up an account. Though they may not use the same plugins and your template may not be there, it's still an easy way to "try" out the changes to see how they work on the admin side.

RE: OK, I am not sure...

2008-11-09T18:37:29Z

I cannot recommend one personally, but here is a list of open source email marketing tools. I hope it helps!

RE: Welcome to wp4lib!

2008-10-28T22:11:46Z

Wow, that's a nice looking implementation! Color me impressed!

I pretty much gave up on widgets because of how much I wanted to customize the sidebar on our site. What widgets would you be interested in having? (Not that I can actually code such things--just curious!)

RE: Welcome to wp4lib!

2008-10-28T16:15:57Z

Hi! I use the free version of Wordpress and I love it. Our site is http://zblibrary.org. We actually have 4 WP sites that are combined into one. I pull the feeds off of the various sites to automatically update our library's Facebook and Myspace accounts. I do wish there was a lilttle more versatility with widgets, but can't complain.

RE: Welcome to wp4lib!

2008-08-26T19:37:28Z

Hi Donna,

Sorry I've been so long in responding to you -- school just started here last week and it has been a little hectic!

We just did a bookmark promoting the idea that our "virtual branch" is always open even while the Cody library is closed in preparation for its move to the new library. We haven't seen any real uptick in visitor numbers, but we'll see.

I'm also trying to encourage everyone to put the URL of the site in their email signature, on any sign they make, etc., as a way of getting it into people's heads.

Laura

RE: Welcome to wp4lib!

2008-08-26T19:31:18Z

Hi Susan,

When you set up your blog, go to Options-->Discussion, and you'll see a bunch of different options for how comments will work. I have a spam filtering plugin (Akismet; I've also used Spam Karma 2) that gets rid of most of the spam, and other comments get emailed to me, and I can decide to post them or not.

Good luck with your teen blog, and let us know how it works out!

Laura

RE: Welcome to wp4lib!

2008-08-23T18:49:30Z

Hi Susan,

We moderate our comments (though we don't have a lot.... yet). There are a couple of ways to do that with Wordpress. You can set it so that all comments have to be approved before they appear (this is what we do). You can also set it up so that the author can post directly once they have a previously approved comment, or to require the comment author to fill out a name and email.

Wordpress also seems to be pretty good at detecting "spam" posts. You have the option to review these, and if they are not spam you can redirect them.