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I have failed to write/blog about this for quite some time because of shear busyness (<– is that even a word?). But, since mid October of last year I decided to use Drupal as a content management system for McMaster University Library’s digital collections. I elected to go the brave/trail blazing/cheap route, instead of using an out of the box solution like ContentDM. Nothing against ContentDM, but I believe that libraries, especially academic libraries need to be at the forefront of using and incorporating open source software solutions to meet their needs.

With the help of a web designer/programmer (Ryan Barrett) hired for the Peace & War for the 20th Century and other staff members, we have been able to begin to mold Drupal into the beast that it can be. We have taken advantage of the CCK module (and the plethora of compliments to it) to develop individual collections, with their own unique meta data combined with Dublin Core for OAI compliance. In the next week or so, we will move from developing collections in FileMaker Pro, to exclusively Drupal. Soon after students will be able to test the alpha version of the site for research, and submit comments, errors, and bugs to a forum we have setup for them on the installation.

This spring the Peace & War in the 20th Century will launch, powered by Drupal. Authenticated users will have to ability to comment, tag, and contact research staff with any questions.

According to a listserv message I received today, “Wayne State’s Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs has been awarded the 2008 John Sessions Memorial Award for its online resource: ‘No Greater Calling: The Life of Walter P. Reuther, 1907-1970.’” This website was one of the projects I was a part of for the Recruiting and Educating Librarians for the 21st Century, while at Wayne State University. I want to take the time to say thank you for all the hard work by my fellow grant recipients on this project and congratulate them, too: Mignon Camara, Iman Dagher, Anna Fast, Megan Garza, Somaly Kim, Sharon Williams, and Akilah Wood.

John Sessions Memorial Award
A plaque given to a library or library system to honor significant work with the labor community and to recognize the history and contributions of the labor movement toward the development of this country. (Established 1980)

The jury is a committee comprised of three to five RUSA members who have demonstrated interest in or experience with library service to labor groups. Members serve two-year terms. Consecutive terms are not permitted. Nominees will be reviewed in a closed meeting of the committee during Midwinter.

Cogeco’s throttling , and traffic shaping techniqes - circumvented. What happens next? Cogeco introduces fantastic monthly bandwidth caps. With “Pro” plan you get great downstream and upstream speeds, and an awesome 100GB Cap! On top of that, if you approach your bandwidth limit, they will inject some javascript into you browser just to give you a head up! Thanks, Cogeco! Even better, if you go over it, Cogeco magically turns every single page on the internet into a detailed warning page. Here’s my very own warning page: