ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 784 / C&RL News ■ O ctober 2000 INTERNET RESOURCES Information architecture Tools for cutting-edge Web developers by Rob Withers , Rob Casson, Aaron Shrimplin, and Katherine C. Adams W hen the Web first emerged, Web sites consisted of relatively small collections of static, text-only data. The comple today’s Web sites reflects powerful new tools for developing and managing them. Script­ ing languages enable Web developers to man­ age large am ounts o f data and create customizable interfaces that respond to user needs, while information architecture tech­ niques ensure that Web users quickly and efficiently locate information. The core of information architecture is Web site n av ig atio n , la b e lin g /n a m in g schemes, and Web site structure. Informa­ tion architects determine the functional and conceptual building blocks of a site. Unlike Web designers who are concerned with type­ face, graphics, and other particulars of con­ structing an interface, information architects create organizational and navigational struc­ tures that help people access information. A sso cia tio n s and centers • A m erican S ociety for In form ation S cien ce. This Web site offers a variety of resources for information architects, includ­ x ing a list of conferences and events, a jobline, a schedule of nationwide continuing educa­ ity tioof n courses, and an online bookstore. Ac­ cess: http://www.asis.org/. • T he A m erican S ociety o f In d exers (ASI). This site is intended for those who in­ dex print and digital resources. ASI offers both general information on indexing and materi­ als of special interest to those who index digi­ tal materials. Access: http://www.asindexing. org/index.html. • T he Argus C enter fo r In form ation A rchitecture. Sponsored by Argus Associ­ ates, the leading Information Architecture firm in the United States (http://argus-inc.com/), this site manages a collection of links, posts original research articles, and lists seminars, events, and conferences of interest to the in­ formation architecture community. Access: http://argus-acia.com/. Electron ic lists • In form ation A rch itectu re Listserv. Sponsored by American Society for Informa­ tion Science (ASIS), this electronic list grew out of the ASIS Summit 2000 conference, De- About the authors Rob Withers, Rob Casson, and Aaron Shrimplin are electronic inform ation services librarians a t M iam i University, e-mail: rwithers@lib.muohio.edu, rcasson@lib.muohio.edu, a n d aaron@lib.muohio.edu; and Katherine C Adams is inform ation architect Mohomine, e-mail: kadams@mohomine.com http://www.asis.org/ http://www.asindexing http://argus-inc.com/ http://argus-acia.com/ mailto:rwithers@lib.muohio.edu mailto:rcasson@lib.muohio.edu mailto:andaaron@lib.muohio.edu mailto:kadams@mohomine.com C&RL News ■ O ctober 2000 / 785 fining Information Architecture, held in Bos­ ton, April 8 -9 , 2000. The postings are often thought provoking and instructive. Access: www.asis.org/Conferences/Summit2000/ Information_Architecture/listserv.html. • Info Design Listserv. A moderated, low- volume electronic list that functions as a fo- rum for information design issues. Participants discuss how to present visual information so that it is effective, efficient, and attractive. A ccess: http://list.design-inst.nl/mailman/ listinfo/infodesign. Tutorials and general guides • In form ation A rchitectu re Tutorial. John Shiple, an information architect from Venice, California, offers a concise, five-step guide to the basics o f information architec­ ture. A ccess: http://hotwired.lycos.com/ webmonkey/design/site_building/tutorials/ tutoriall.html. • Yale’s Web Style Guide: Site Design. This chapter on site design is part o f a larger electronic text on basic principles of Web site design. It includes a wonderful analysis of hierarchical Web site construction and introduces the important concep t of “chunking information.” Access: http:// info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/sites/ site_design. html. • U se it.com : Ja c o b Nielsen’s Web Site. This site by the highly respected Nielsen, form er Web site usability guru at Sun Microsystems, offers a wealth of information on how to construct Web sites that place user’s needs front and center. O f special note is Nielsen’s “ Alertbox’’ column that began in 1995. Access: http://www.useit.com/. Critiques of Web sites • D econ structin g … This column from the electronic journal In tern et World offers critiques of some of the most prominent sites on the Web by a rotating group of designers and information architects. A ccess: http:// www.internetworld.com/print/decon/. • A C loser Look: Critical Reviews o f C o rp o ra te W ebsites. Louis Rosenfeld, a noted information architect, sizes up the Web sites o f large corporations in this engaging series o f essays. A ccess: http://webbusiness. cio.com/archive/closer. html. • Critique o f the Week. The column from the electronic journal CNETB u ild er.com ex­ amines a variety of Web sites: e-commerce, e-journals, vertical portals, and entertainment sites. Written from a Web designer’s point of view, these critiques are highly informative. A ccess: http://www.builder.com/Graphics/ Critique/index. html. • V incen t F la n d e rs’ Web Pages th at Suck.com. This site takes an amusing look at bad Web site design. Although the critiques are written from the point of view of a Web designer, this site is chock-a-block with orga- nizational and navigational examples to avoid. Access: http://www.websitesthatsuck.com/. Exam ples to fo llo w • The Argus Clearinghouse. Founded in 1993 by students from the University o f Michigan’s Library and Information Studies Program, this site has gained fame as a topi- cal guide to Internet resources. Currently maintained by Argus Associates, this Web site is an excellent source o f examples to follow. Access: http //www. clearinghouse. net/. Electronic jo u rn als • Web Review: Cross-Training fo r Web Team s. This online journal is a superior re- source for lively, informative articles. Access: http://www.webreview.com/. • In tern etw ork in g . Sponsored by the Internet Technical Group, this site offers scholarly yet pragmatic essays on a wide range o f topics, such as user interface de­ sign, human Computer interaction, etc. A c­ cess: http ://www. sandia .gov/itg/newsletter/ newsletter.html. W ebliographies • Usable Web: 7 9 1 Links About Web Usability. This site has a wonderfully compre- hensive collection of links to resources about Web usability testing, navi- gation, Web site design, technology, etc. Access: http://usableweb.com/. • jjg.n et. Jig.net has a well-organized collection o f links maintained by http://www.asis.org/Conferences/Summit2000/ http://list.design-inst.nl/mailman/ http://hotwired.lycos.com/ http://www.useit.com/ http://www.internetworld.com/print/decon/ http://webbusiness http://www.builder.com/Graphics/ http://www.websitesthatsuck.com/ http://www.webreview.com/ http://usableweb.com/ 786 / C&RL News ■ October 2000 Jesse James Garrett, an information architect in San Francisco. Access: http://www.jjg.net/ia/. • Info. Design Inform ation Architec­ ture Resources. Sponsored by an informa­ tion architecture firm, this is a carefully se- lected list of links on knowledge manage­ ment, Web usability testing, navigation, writ- ing for the Web, and more. Access: http:// www.infodn.com/iares-ia. shtml. Dynamic scripting languages Scripting languages such as PHP or Cold Fusion can: • develop interfaces that allow librarians who are not proficient with HTML to create and edit dynamically generated Web pages or catalogs; • create Web pages that enable users to access tab-delim ited data from outside sources, including metadata extracted from online catalogs and data sets available from commercial providers; • generate interactive Web pages that adapt to the user’s browser Software or enable users to create customized interfaces; and • facilitate usability studies by providing statistical information about each link. While some languages are proprietary, many are also open source, ensuring that applications are readily available at no cost. Mailing lists/discussion G eneral • Web4Lib. This list is a forum to fester the discussion of issues related to the cre- ation and management of library-based Web servers and clients. Although this is a high- traffic list, there are frequent discussions of dynamic scripting languages. Discussion fo- cuses more on selecting languages and de- veloping projects than on specific scripting difficulties. Access: http://sunsite.berkeley. edu/Web4Lib/archive. html. PHP related lists: • php-general@lists.php.net. This is the main, unmoderated, high-volume list for all things related to PHP scripting. Before post- ing to this list, people should make sure that there is not a more specific forum for their topic. Available as individual messages or di- gested. • php-db@lists.php.net. This is a list for PHP questions regarding the language’s abili- ties to interface with various database prod- ucts. Relatively low-traffic. • php-windows@lists.php.net. This is the list for users of PHP on various Windows platforms (NT, 2000, 98, etc.). Others avail­ able from the Web site at http://www.php.net/ support.php. postgresql lists • pgsql-admin@postgresql.org • pgsql-sql@postgresql.org • pgsql-novice@postgresql.org Others available from the Web site at http://www.postgresql.org/lists/all-lists.html. mysql lists • mysql@lists.mysql.com • win32@lists.mysql.com General resources for scripting • Database Enabled Websites Tutorial. While very Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL-ori- ented, this tutorial outlines how to install and get started with building dynamic and database-driven Web sites. Included are a working example of a guestbook applica- tion and documented source code. Instruc- tions for installation are provided for two of the most popular flavors of Linux, Debian and Redhat. Access: http://www.awtrey.com/ support/dbeweb/. • Freshm eat. Although not focused on Web-based services, Freshmeat should be a first stop for anyone beginning to think about enhancing their Internet presence. Freshmeat is a directory to all kinds of server and desk- top software, with a slant toward UNIX-type systems. Check here before reinventing the wheel; people can often find programs that will suit their needs and programming lan- guage requirements, and most everything at Freshmeat will be Open Source. A ccess: http://www.freshmeat.net. • Webmonkey. People thinking about creating a database-driven Web site, check out Graeme Merrall’s PHP/MySQL Tutorial. In addition to articles on MySQL and PHP, articles and tutorials on ColdFusion and ASP are a v ailab le, as w ell. A ccess : http:// hotwired. lycos. com/webmonkey/. • Webreview, (see above) This is another good site for articles about database-driven Web pages. Access: http://www.webreview.com/. http://www.jjg.net/ia/ http://www.infodn.com/iares-ia http://sunsite.berkeley mailto:php-general@lists.php.net mailto:php-db@lists.php.net mailto:php-windows@lists.php.net http://www.php.net/ mailto:pgsql-admin@postgresql.org mailto:pgsql-sql@postgresql.org mailto:pgsql-novice@postgresql.org http://www.postgresql.org/lists/all-lists.html mailto:mysql@lists.mysql.com mailto:win32@lists.mysql.com http://www.awtrey.com/ http://www.freshmeat.net http://www.webreview.com/ C&RL News ■ O ctob er 2000 / 787 Open Source scripting resources • Devshed. Devshed is an excellent site for articles and tutorials on Open Source Web technologies. Tutorials are aimed at getting novice programmers up to speed on using PHP and MySQL as Web development tools. Articles range from “Website Database Ba- sics with PHP and Mysql” to “Building an E- Commerce Site.” B e sure to check out the PHP 101 series. A ccess: www.devshed.com. • M od_perl. Perl and the Apache Web servers have been some o f the most versatile tools for building Web-based services, and mod_perl aims to more closely integrate the tw o. E m b p erl ( h ttp :/ / p erl.ap ach e.org / embperl/) is a module that allows develop- ers to embed Perl directly into HTML pages, bringing the full power o f Perl to Web devel­ op m en t, in clu d in g sites w ith d atab ase backends. Most of Embperl’s strengths come from the strong base Perl itself provides, and is often the choice of experienced Perl pro­ grammers who don’t want to learn a new language. Access: http://perl.apache.org. • MySQL. MySQL is a good choice for Web developers who wish to begin work­ ing with scripting languages and relational databases. While it is reliable and quite fast, it lacks some o f the more advanced SQL featu res o f com petitors like O racle and PostgreSQL. MySQL is available for most UNIX, Windows, and OS/2 systems, and is covered by an Open Source licensing agree- ment. Access-, http://www.mysql.com. • Oss41ib— O pen S ource System s fo r Lib ra rie s. It goes without saying that librar- ies should be partners in the Open Source movement. Oss41ib is committed to maintain- ing a listing of free source movement by main- taining a listing o f free Software and systems designed for libraries. People who get the “PHP bug” should submit their code to the list. Also take a look at some o f the projects that are already done, including a PHP Book Loan program. Access: http://www.oss41ib.org. • PHP Builder. A PHP community site with articles covering introductory issues and more advanced and interesting applications o f PHP. Many user-initiated forums contain tips and tricks from some o f the foremost d evelopers o f PHP. A ccess: http://www. phpbuilder.com. • PHP: H yp ertext P rep rocessor. PHP is a server-side scripting language available for UNIX and Win­ dows systems. It can be embedded directly into HTML tags and features the ability to interface with database prod- ucts like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MS Ac­ cess, and many others. The main site links to a complete annotated manual online, source code downloads, and links to outside re­ sources. It is Open Source, and is becoming a first choice over alternative technologies like C o ld F u sio n and A SP/V BScript. A c c e s s : http://www.php.net. • PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL is an Open Source relational database management sys- tem that supports more advanced features of Structured Q uery Language (SQ L) than MySQL, such as subqueries, transaction Pro­ cessing, and triggers. PostgreSQL is available for most UNIX-type systems, with a port to WindowsNT appearing more recently. Access: http://www. postgresql.org. • Z o p e. Zope is an ongoing effort to provide an O pen Source content m anage­ m ent and portal system. It is written in Python and C, and there are efforts to add Perl support in the future. Site templates can be used to ensure consistency across the site, with content that can be edited through a Web-based interface. While it may not be as flexible as PHP or Embperl, Zope provides an option for sites that wish to provide some dynamic functionality, but don’t want to “roll their own” solution. Access: http://www.zope. org. P roprietary scripting languages • C old Fusion. This site has had great name recognition in the field o f database- enabled Web sites for many years now. It is a viable option for those who wish to buy an out-of-the-box solution to delivering existing databases to end-users. It features an HTML- em beddable syntax, much like PHP and Embperl. There are many product levels to choose from, with support for Windows, Linux, Solaris, and HP-UX. A ccess: http:// www.allaire.com/products/coldfusion/. ■ http://www.devshed.com http://perl.apache.org/ http://perl.apache.org http://www.mysql.com http://www.oss41ib.org http://www http://www.php.net http://www http://www.zope http://www.allaire.com/products/coldfusion/