Week 8 Readings

w3schools.com’s “HTML Basic” and the “CSS Tutorial” are great resources.  HTML is a markup language that uses tags to describe web pages.  Web browsers read HTML documents and display them as the web pages we see.  Tags are used in pairs at the start and end of a command, and are enclosed in angle brackets.  CSS takes HTML further by defining how HTML elements should be displayed, or the format of a document, including backgrounds, fonts, links, colors, etc.  CSS can be saved in external .css files; this makes it easy to change the appearance and layout of a web page, because you can edit a single file. 

Webmonkey’s “HTML Cheatsheet” is another winner for getting the basics of HTML.  (I am a little concerned about some the comments at the end of this document, which seem to suggest that not all the information here is valid any longer [body attributes, bold and italics, color].)  Still, I’m sure there is enough here about basic tags to get one started.

And getting started seems easy enough--the tags for very basic formatting don’t seem particularly complicated.  It looks like it gets a little dicey when you start to add images and tables and lists and forms.  But adding color is really cool--all those different combinations of rgb values give a wide range of results. The “Quick List” at the end of w3schools.com’s HTML section is very handy--indeed, I’ve printed this out to keep as a guide. 

“Beyond HTML” describes one university library’s experience in developing a content management system (CMS) for its library web guides.  What struck me about this article is the importance of hiring a “web development librarian.”  I wish I weren’t so unsure of myself when it comes to technology; had I more confidence in my understanding of the nuts and bolts of computers and technology, I might have chosen a different track in this program.  With one course left to go, at this point, I will not do that.  But for those of you just starting out, it seems that a program focused on technology is the smart thing to pursue.  The web development librarian of whom this article speaks made significant improvements to the library’s web infrastructure, displaying content in a consistent way, which led to a clearly defined organizational voice and thus credibility and improved usability.  And he or she did this using existing technology of in-house web development projects (as opposed to commercial or open-source options)!  The end result was a CMS that provided standardization and ease of use through templates.  This article really made clear to me that future librarians should direct a good portion of their education toward learning “web site information architecture and writing for the web medium.”  As for me, I should devote any continuing education I pursue to this area.