Robert,
Yes, it is possible (via URL aliasing, or what you call the "public face"), and
we've got it, BUT:
Have you ever tried to get corporate IT and/or Webteams to do this? We have,
have fought it through, lost it, fought to have it reinstated, and wait to lose
it again....
It's also true of email domains - academic sites often allow the facility to be
added to the domain, but few local authorities I've seen allow this.
There seems to be, in my view, a corporate resistance to anything which takes
the user through a local goverment website other than from the index page, and
then only through the organisational structures we put into place, not the way
the customer views it.
Proper weblog analysis may show how customers use sites and help the webteams to
restructure accordingly. e-Gov may point the way, with a Customer-Centric view
of the data. To their credit, our web/e-Gov people seem to have taken that on
board.
Perhaps Resource (Messrs Potts & Gillman?) might like to look at that one as
part of the forthcoming Resource workshop on:
Content delivery and the People's Network:
Workshop exploring technical planning and management
As well as underlying issues about Fixed and Dynamic IP addresses for
authorites, down to the site level.
It's a Biggie!
Regards
JU
-------------------------------------------
John Usher
ICT Development Manager
Islington Library and Cultural Services
Regeneration & Education Department
Central Library
2 Fieldway Crescent
LONDON N5 1PF
Tel: +44 (0)20 7527 6920
Mobile: +44 (0)79 2900 9686
Fax: +44 (0)20 7527 6926
Switchboard: +44 (0)20 7527 6900
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.islington.gov.uk/libraries
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____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject: Public library URLs
Author: "Robert Harden" <SMTP:[log in to unmask]>
Date: 17/06/03 08:45
Why don't all public library authorities use a common and consistent
form of web address? Why don't they all use /libraries after the
address of the authority, eg.
www.loamshire.gov.uk/libraries
Some libraries already do. But most have complicated URLs, often
reflecting the organisational hierarchy they find themselves in. Many
have unquotably long URLs because of the database structure of the
site. Simple consistent URLs that followed the same pattern nationwide
would make library sites easier to find and easier to promote.
There is no technical impediment. Whatever the real URL, the /libraries
address can be the public face of it, even on database sites.
You may have noticed that this is the style of naming that the BBC uses
and it comes in very handy when the address of a particular site needs
to be referred to.
Robert Harden
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