New Site is Up Today!

From Greg:

Tomorrow we will launch a brand new HPL website!  As Dr. Lawson mentioned in her message last week, she tasked Virtual Library Services with developing a new site that is fast, engaging and intuitive for our customers, while being efficient and user-friendly for staff.

The new site is built in Drupal, an open-source Content Management System that will allow us much greater flexibility in the ongoing development of the site.  Additionally, the new site is designed to be responsive to the variety of devices that customers might use to access our site.

We also had several goals in mind in terms of the customer experience with the site, wanting it to be:

·         Engaging and visually appealing

·         Dynamic, in terms of the ability to frequently change content

·         More interactive

·         User friendly

It is important to note that we see the site as constantly evolving and growing.  We have a list of items and content that we plan to add to the site in phases after the initial launch, so if you don’t see something on the site immediately, it is likely that it is scheduled as part of a later phase of development. 

Customer and staff feedback are important to this process, and are welcomed.  The new site will have a feedback link for customer and staff use in the header of the main page.  Questions placed in this form will go directly to Virtual Library Services.

Your support is critical to the success of this transition!  We have developed a short list of FAQ’s and a brief overview of the site to help you prepare to assist customers, which you can view on Inside HPL, our intranet site, at this address:  https://hplnet.hpl.lib.tx.us/depts/it/website-FAQs.pdf

Please note that the technical transition to the new site has begun, so you (and our customers) might actually see the new site later this evening!

Finally, feel free to contact the Virtual Library Services team at hplvirtuallibrary@houstontx.gov if you have any questions.

PF