austraLasia
#1818
A test case for a website -
please take a look
ROME:
17th April 2007 -- The Salesian
Digital Library (SDL) has reached a point of localised development that
now begs your observations and indeed your 'wish list'. At this point it
could begin to function on a wider basis and has the potential to either replace
or supplement storage and search functions of the Congregation's website http://www.sdb.org/ (Bosconet likewise).
Given the extent and diversity of austraLasia's readership, we have a good test
case to offer if that readership is willing to help.
Let's
approach this with some understanding of what SDL can offer. Because it is
built on an open software source, it has been modifiable and adaptable to the
nth degree - and can be still further modified. Using an approach
sponsored in part by UNESCO to ensure free or low cost use even where people may
not have internet access, or may be using relatively ancient hardware, SDL
offers the following options: (1) storage and detailed search capabilities for
any kind of digital format on any platform (2) presentation and navigation
possibilities for around 40 of the world's languages (extensible in theory to
all the world's languages). If someone has no internet access, a
collection or a set of collections can be exported to CD. In other words the CD
versions can replicate SDL in its entirety, with all its
functions.
At the moment, SDL offers 8 collections, though
in time it offer more. The one most likely to interest readers here is the
'English' collection, though a glance at the others would be useful too.
You will note that at this point that the first decision is a language
choice. [If materials in many languages are on offer we can group certain
languages, for example a CJK group of Asian languages all available from a
single CJK collection]. Once you enter, say, the 'English' collection, you
then have the choice of selecting the well-known 'departments' or sectors of
Salesian activity (drop-down box which reads 'Don Bosco' at top level), but you
have equal facility to search according to some other factor - if you know the
object's format, then 'browse format' will quickly produce it, 'creator' if you
know the author, and so on.
It may happen that an English
language item belongs to another collection which is not strictly based on
language - either the 'Don Bosco' collection or the 'reserved for Salesians'
collection (indicated by a lock icon). You will note that the 'English'
collection is linked to the 'Don Bosco' and the 'reserved' collections, ensuring
that a search in one produces results from the other as well. Indeed, it would
have been possible to have chosen an approach where the first choice was the
'Salesian sectors' and the secondary choice was the languages within each sector
- but the current arrangement emphasizes the language inclusiveness of SDL which
is seen, at least for now, to be a value worth promoting.
What of the 'reserved' issues? It seems, to this webmaster anyway, that
95% of Salesian digital material is not reserved for any reason of secrecy but
for convenience, and I could offer you hard data that indicates that most
reserved groups on sdb.org are in fact not being used by anybody, nor do they
contain any material! There seems to be far less need for 'reservation'
than is provided for. SDL offers two forms of 'reservation' - per document and
per collection. Try searching on 'Yu' in the English collection, for example.
The 'Seg.isp/Isp' and other reserved collection (and any future reserved
collections) contain only materials that people would readily agree are for
restricted access.
The key, then, is which groups are open
and which are restricted. SDL enables encryption of passwords, so no password
can ever really be worked out by anyone on the internet - but usernames and
passwords can be easily shared by human beings - that was always so. The
suggestion, therefore, is that we keep this very simple. Any confrere
should be able to access the generally reserved SDB area of SDL without having
to engage in too much mental gymnastics each time - at the moment it contains
the Annuario/Elenco which, because of all its address details, is best kept 'in
house'. The 'Seg.Isp...' collection has modules of interest to provincials and
prov secretaries - hence they form a group with their own username and
password.
For now, you may enter the reserved Salesian
area with australasia as username and nov0797 as p/w (nov0797 being the date of
issue of austraLasia #1!). That will also work for other single documents
reserved here and there. It will not work with 'Seg.isp...'. One document you
may be especially interested in will require username and p/w as indicated here
- it is the Salesian Proper Lectionary, an experimental effort at a private
level which does not as yet have the requisite permissions for publication, but
for all practical purposes offers what you need in English and has not existed
prior to this. Use it as a 'search' practice item, knowing that you can
find it in html or pdf and that it bears the date 2007.
SDL appears to be functional, serviceable. It is not necessarily pretty.
The Congregation's website has a duty to look pretty - it is the face of the
Congregation. It also has the duty to be functional. With all the best of
intentions it is not exactly that. SDL is built to be functional - but remains a
bit plain in looks! The obvious conclusion is to combine both to get the best of
both worlds. Please take an interest in this development and be ready to
offer any thoughts you may have. The region can do a great service to the
entire Congregation this way.
_________________
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