Interview with Debra Riley-Huff, Web Services Librarian and Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi
(M: Margaret Swanson & D: Debra Riley-Huff)
M: How and where did you hear about CMS?
D: I heard about and became involved in using Drupal about 5 years ago. It was recommended to me by a colleague at the University of Kansas.
M: What were your motivations to adopt a CMS?
D: I needed to able to deliver news via RSS Feeds and allow Librarians with no or few Web skills to create Web content.
M: Why use it for subject guides and government documents?
D: Subject guides are maintained by bibliographers with few Web skills. This allows them to be creative and take ownership of their content without much intervention on my part. Our Government Documents site needs frequent updates and our Gov Docs librarian expressed an interest in it.
M: Do you use Drupal for anything else at the OleMiss libraries?
D: We will be putting our database listings, news and archives subject guides in it very soon. We may also have blogs here for subject librarians
M: What were your decision making criteria for a CMS?
D: We needed power, flexibility, and good documentation.
M: How did you end up with Drupal?
D: It met all our requirements and it is free!
M: Was there anything in particular about Drupal that tipped the scales in its favor?
D: Taxonomy features and a large user community. It is a very respected open source CMS. Also I know PHP and MySql, which Drupal is based on.
M: What are the important benefits or advantages of Drupal over the old system or another CMS system you've used in the past?
D: Drupal has a great taxonomy system, huge module list, good themes. The only other CMS I have used is Wordpress and Joomla which are very nice but just not powerful enough for a large site
M: What would you say are the best features of Drupal?
D: It is based on a core framework, so you add modules and never touch the core. This makes development very straightforward. Taxonomy, CCK and Views modules. Great security team.
M: What would you say are the most frustrating aspects of Drupal?
D: There is not an integrated WYSIWYG editor, and those available are not that great.
M: How was the learning curve?
D: It is a bit steeper than others as it is a bigger program.
M: About how long did it take you to get Drupal up and running?
D: It can be up and running in an hour. Customizing it though takes time, depending on how extensive your customizations are. Ours took a few weeks.
M: How many people do you have regularly working with/updating Drupal?
D: We have about 15 people contributing content. I am the only one that administers the site.
M: Are you pleased with how Drupal works?
D: Yes, very pleased.
M: How often do you update versions of Drupal?
D: I always apply minor security version updated right away. I apply major upgrades (version 5 to 6) about 6 months after the new version is out.
M: Given the option, would you choose to use Drupal again? Or would you choose another CMS?
D: I would no doubt go with Drupal.
M: How and where did you hear about CMS?
D: I heard about and became involved in using Drupal about 5 years ago. It was recommended to me by a colleague at the University of Kansas.
M: What were your motivations to adopt a CMS?
D: I needed to able to deliver news via RSS Feeds and allow Librarians with no or few Web skills to create Web content.
M: Why use it for subject guides and government documents?
D: Subject guides are maintained by bibliographers with few Web skills. This allows them to be creative and take ownership of their content without much intervention on my part. Our Government Documents site needs frequent updates and our Gov Docs librarian expressed an interest in it.
M: Do you use Drupal for anything else at the OleMiss libraries?
D: We will be putting our database listings, news and archives subject guides in it very soon. We may also have blogs here for subject librarians
M: What were your decision making criteria for a CMS?
D: We needed power, flexibility, and good documentation.
M: How did you end up with Drupal?
D: It met all our requirements and it is free!
M: Was there anything in particular about Drupal that tipped the scales in its favor?
D: Taxonomy features and a large user community. It is a very respected open source CMS. Also I know PHP and MySql, which Drupal is based on.
M: What are the important benefits or advantages of Drupal over the old system or another CMS system you've used in the past?
D: Drupal has a great taxonomy system, huge module list, good themes. The only other CMS I have used is Wordpress and Joomla which are very nice but just not powerful enough for a large site
M: What would you say are the best features of Drupal?
D: It is based on a core framework, so you add modules and never touch the core. This makes development very straightforward. Taxonomy, CCK and Views modules. Great security team.
M: What would you say are the most frustrating aspects of Drupal?
D: There is not an integrated WYSIWYG editor, and those available are not that great.
M: How was the learning curve?
D: It is a bit steeper than others as it is a bigger program.
M: About how long did it take you to get Drupal up and running?
D: It can be up and running in an hour. Customizing it though takes time, depending on how extensive your customizations are. Ours took a few weeks.
M: How many people do you have regularly working with/updating Drupal?
D: We have about 15 people contributing content. I am the only one that administers the site.
M: Are you pleased with how Drupal works?
D: Yes, very pleased.
M: How often do you update versions of Drupal?
D: I always apply minor security version updated right away. I apply major upgrades (version 5 to 6) about 6 months after the new version is out.
M: Given the option, would you choose to use Drupal again? Or would you choose another CMS?
D: I would no doubt go with Drupal.
