The James Earl Carter Library on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) in Americus, GA uses a Content Management System (CMS) for its website. I emailed the Director of University Relations Stephen Snyder (who was in charge of choosing the CMS) and Dean of the Library Ru Story-Huffman (who was in charge of choosing who would have access to the library’s information) in order to find out more about the CMS used at the library.
VA (Valarie Anthony): How and where did you hear about CMS?
SS (Stephen Snyder): Recognizing the need for improved Web management and functionality, the GSW University Relations Office and the Office of Instructional and Informational Technology began vetting Content Management Systems three or four years ago. We implemented out current CMS in February 2012.
VA: What were their motivations to adopt CMS for its current use?
SS: GSW needed an end user-friendly system that allowed faculty and staff to make updates without prior coding knowledge. Also, improved site management and the ability to make broad changes across the site simultaneously was very important.
VA: What were your decision making criteria and what is the name of CMS you are using now?
SS: Cost and system capabilities. The name of the System is CM1 by Percussion Software.
VA: What are the important benefits or advantages of the CMS you are using now over the old system or another CMS system you’ve used in the past?
SS: The differences are night and day. With the old system each piece of content had to be modified on every single page. Now, changes can be made across the site instantaneously inside the navigation structure. Without requirement of programming, end users can easily perform web content managing jobs.
VA: What kind of training or assistance is available for the CMS?
SS: Myself along with Ming Xi, our Web Developer, held 3 training sessions for faculty and staff from the different departments that will be using the CMS. If individual training is or was necessary, Ming assisted with that. We also have handouts and tutorials available for use.
VA (Valarie Anthony): Where you excited when GSW (Georgia Southwestern State University) decided to switch to a CMS for their website?
RSH (Ru Story-Huffman): I was! Previously we used FrontPage to edit our website. It was hard to edit and upload the changes that we needed to make.
VA: Who has access to the CMS and how was that decided?
RSH: I formed a website committee team composed of myself, Valarie Anthony, the library’s tech person who did all the editing for our previous website. I also choose Gretchen Smith and Tish Andrews because they deal with a lot of the information that we present on our website. I wanted to have every library department represented and individuals that would be comfortable with learning and using the system.
VA: Do you believe that CM1 by Percussion Software is easy to use?
RSH: It is very easy to use. We received quality training and handout prior to implementing the new website. Also, if anyone has any questions Ming XI, the university’s Web Developer, is always quick to help.
Reflection
From the thoughtful answers both Stephen and Ru provided, it's easy to see that one of the reasons behind acquiring a CMS in both cases was ease of use. Faculty and staff members who were not very trained needed something they could figure out fairly easily. The CMS also provided flexibility, attractive designs and the training for the system was not very steep. Both individuals noted the difference between the old and the new, with the new being easy to update and having more power and capabilities for enriched content. I appreciate both Stephen and Ru for taking the time to answer my questions. They have helped me out a lot in seeing the benefits of what a CMS has to offer.
Wow, you had a great interview. I learned that not everyone who is creating the websites was actually trained to or interested in doing it from my interview. It really opened my eyes to what a job in a library could be.
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