LibData to LibCMS. One library's evolutionary pathway to a content management system
| Published date | 01 January 2006 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830610652086 |
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| Pages | 14-28 |
| Author | Paul F. Bramscher,John T. Butler |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THEME ARTICLE
LibData to LibCMS
One library’s evolutionary pathway to a
content management system
Paul F. Bramscher and John T. Butler
Digital Library Development Lab, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities,
Minnesota, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The University of Minnesota Libraries have developed and implemented LibCMS, an
open architecture content management system (CMS) that combines with the previously-built LibData
system to meet the web page publishing and site management needs of a large research library. The
purpose of this paper is to present overall observations about CMSs and their implementation, and
details the requirements and design of LibCMS.
Design/methodology/approach – The system’s development followed an evolutionary path
moving from a modest data repository, to a large system with a three-tiered web page authoring
environment, and now to a CMS with site-level management capability. This work leaned on abstract
tree structures to manage navigational hierarchy both within and between pages. Methods were
developed to represent tree architecture in an RDBMS while economizing traversal and maintenance of
nodes.
Findings – Developing the CMS locally ensured that design followed the requirements of a large
academic library environment and its service/business model. This also allowed the implementation to
be an organic extension of existing authoring tools in the environment rather than the potentially
disruptive incorporation of a new system.
Research limitations/implications – Architectural problems encountered here have traditionally
been treated outside of library and information science. The challenge both in implementation and in
research has been to bridge gaps between computer science and applied technologies in libraries.
Practical implications – Implementations of open source, library-oriented CMSs could, over time,
open the door to community software development and distribution efforts.
Originality/value – This paper uniquely details the rationale and design of a library-oriented, open
architecture CMS, built to interoperate with a large, content repository.
Keywords Content management,Libraries, Open systems
Paper type Technical Paper
Introduction
As a first step on its path towards a content management system (CMS), the University
of Minnesota Libraries developed LibData, a data repository built with open sourc e
technologies (Bramscher et al., 2003). Consisting of approximately 40 relational tables,
LibData contains resources, subjects, information types, staff, libraries, library
services, and numerous other entities, and enables extensive and rich relationsh ips
between them.
Moving beyond simple data-entry forms, LibData provides multiple authoring
mechanisms allowing these entities to be pulled together in various ways to meet
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
LHT
24,1
14
Received 1 September 2005
Revised 1 November 2005
Accepted 15 November 2005
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 24 No. 1, 2006
pp. 14-28
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830610652086
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