Interview with Darin Givens from GPLS

I was fortunate to have an interview with Darin Givens, the Webmaster and Communications Specialist for the Georgia Public Library Service. Here is the transcript of our conversation.


• To begin with, can you please share a bit about your background and your job description? 

I have been working in Web design and development for 10 years. At GPLS, my position is Communications Specialist/Webmaster. I'm the administrator for the GPLS web server which houses our multiple GPLS sites plus those for 15 Georgia public library systems. I manage and designed: the main GPLS site, georgialibraries.org; Friends of Georgia Libraries, georgia-friends.org; our two intranets sites. I also developed and designed several other sites for GPLS-affiliated library organizations, with most of those sites being built on either the Drupal or Joomla content management systems.

Another part of my job is to provide help to the library systems of Georgia with their web services. I give them guidance for web redesign issues and content management strategies.


• How and where did  you hear about CMS? What were your motivations to adopt CMS for its current use (library website or any other purpose)? 

I can't remember my introduction to CMS. I assume I read about them in the web development blogs and sites I frequent. I originally attempted to build my own CMS using PHP for my GPLS projects, but realized that it was going to take more time than I could spend considering my other job duties. I tested installs of Joomla and Drupal on our web server to try them out and found them to be very flexible and able to meet the needs of several projects I've worked on in the last couple of years.

My main motivation for suggesting a CMS for a project is to allow web editors to provide site content without going through the learning curve  -- and purchase of -- software such as Dreamweaver. I do use that software myself for editing code and like it, but I recommend that novice content providers work within a CMS framework instead so that they don't have to learn to use FTP for uploading (Dreamweaver has a built-in FTP device).


• What was your decision making criteria? 

Number one was allowing multiple staff members in an organization to edit web content without needing to learn HTML editing and FTP software. I also wanted to have the ability to customize and easily maintain a stable template for the pages in a site.

Another main concern of mine is making sure that the HTML files as rendered in a browser comply with standards for web usability for people who use assistive browsing technology, such as the blind and visually impaired.

Drupal and Joomla, the two open-source CMS I use, both fit those criteria.

• What are the important benefits or advantages of the CMS that you are using now over the old system or another CMS that you've used in the past? How was the learning curve? 

The important advantage of Drupal and Joomla to me is the ability to add on many different optional devices to enhance the features of the CMS as befits a specific project. The learning curve has been steep for me as a web developer since I get into the details of the source code of these CMS to tailor them to fit my needs as specifically as possible.


• Do you have any additional comments or observations you'd like to share about your experiences with CMS? 

Using a CMS can provide a huge advantage to many web sites and I recommend that everyone building a site consider using one. Nonetheless, there are certainly situations where a CMS would not provide a considerable advantage to a site and may even be too cumbersome to implement. A small site with only a few pages that is maintained by a single person may very well be better off without a CMS.