austraLasia #1818
A test case for a website - please take a
look
ROME: 17th April 2007 -- The Salesian
Digital Library (SDL) has reached a point of localised development that
now begs your observations and indeed your 'wish list'. At this point it
could begin to function on a wider basis and has the potential to either
replace or supplement storage and search functions of the Congregation's
website www.sdb.org (Bosconet likewise).
Given the extent and diversity of austraLasia's readership, we have a good test
case to offer if that readership is willing to help.
Let's approach this with some understanding of what SDL can
offer. Because it is built on an open software source, it has been
modifiable and adaptable to the nth degree - and can be still further
modified. Using an approach sponsored in part by UNESCO to ensure free or low
cost use even where people may not have internet access, or may be using
relatively ancient hardware, SDL offers the following options: (1) storage and
detailed search capabilities for any kind of digital format on any platform (2)
presentation and navigation possibilities for around 40 of the world's
languages (extensible in theory to all the world's languages). If someone
has no internet access, a collection or a set of collections can be exported to
CD. In other words the CD versions can replicate SDL in its entirety, with all
its functions.
At the moment, SDL offers 8 collections, though in time it
offer more. The one most likely to interest readers here is the 'English'
collection, though a glance at the others would be useful too. You will
note that at this point that the first decision is a language choice. [If
materials in many languages are on offer we can group certain languages, for
example a CJK group of Asian languages all available from a single CJK
collection]. Once you enter, say, the 'English' collection, you then have
the choice of selecting the well-known 'departments' or sectors of Salesian
activity (drop-down box which reads 'Don Bosco' at top level), but you have
equal facility to search according to some other factor - if you know the
object's format, then 'browse format' will quickly produce it, 'creator' if you
know the author, and so on.
It may happen that an English language item belongs to
another collection which is not strictly based on language - either the 'Don
Bosco' collection or the 'reserved for Salesians' collection (indicated by a lock
icon). You will note that the 'English' collection is linked to the 'Don Bosco'
and the 'reserved' collections, ensuring that a search in one produces results
from the other as well. Indeed, it would have been possible to have chosen an
approach where the first choice was the 'Salesian sectors' and the secondary
choice was the languages within each sector - but the current arrangement
emphasizes the language inclusiveness of SDL which is seen, at least for now,
to be a value worth promoting.
What of the 'reserved' issues? It seems, to this
webmaster anyway, that 95% of Salesian digital material is not reserved for any
reason of secrecy but for convenience, and I could offer you hard data that
indicates that most reserved groups on sdb.org are in fact not being used by
anybody, nor do they contain any material! There seems to be far less
need for 'reservation' than is provided for. SDL offers two forms of
'reservation' - per document and per collection. Try searching on 'Yu' in the
English collection, for example. The 'Seg.isp/Isp' and other reserved
collection (and any future reserved collections) contain only materials that
people would readily agree are for restricted access.
The key, then, is which groups are open and which are
restricted. SDL enables encryption of passwords, so no password can ever really
be worked out by anyone on the internet - but usernames and passwords can be
easily shared by human beings - that was always so. The suggestion,
therefore, is that we keep this very simple. Any confrere should be able
to access the generally reserved SDB area of SDL without having to engage in
too much mental gymnastics each time - at the moment it contains the
Annuario/Elenco which, because of all its address details, is best kept 'in house'.
The 'Seg.Isp...' collection has modules of interest to provincials and prov
secretaries - hence they form a group with their own username and
password.
For now, you may enter the reserved Salesian area with
australasia as username and nov0797 as p/w (nov0797 being the date of issue of
austraLasia #1!). That will also work for other single documents reserved here
and there. It will not work with 'Seg.isp...'. One document you may be
especially interested in will require username and p/w as indicated here - it
is the Salesian Proper Lectionary, an experimental effort at a private level
which does not as yet have the requisite permissions for publication, but for
all practical purposes offers what you need in English and has not existed
prior to this. Use it as a 'search' practice item, knowing that you can
find it in html or pdf and that it bears the date 2007.
SDL appears to be functional, serviceable. It is not
necessarily pretty. The Congregation's website has a duty to look pretty - it
is the face of the Congregation. It also has the duty to be functional.
With all the best of intentions it is not exactly that. SDL is built to be
functional - but remains a bit plain in looks! The obvious conclusion is to
combine both to get the best of both worlds. Please take an interest in
this development and be ready to offer any thoughts you may have. The
region can do a great service to the entire Congregation this way.
_________________
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for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an
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