1.  Do you have a sense of the overall scope of the project? You mention sections with podcasts as well as sections for more static information, however, the breadth of initial site content is unclear. Do you have a preliminary site outline you can share?

 

This Director Essentials wiki, set up by the grant committee, has the content that directors have told us is important.  Some of the content extends to any type of library; some is specific to the library type - academic, public, school, or special.

 

One of the first things to work on, we believe, is the system architecture.  The selected contractor would develop the site outline with direction from the grant's design team.  Since staff from the regional library systems would be maintaining the website after its development, we would be looking for templates that could easily be used and updated after the project is completed.

 

 

2.   You’ve indicated that the Director Essentials project will include brand/logo development. That type of project is often underestimated and should be treated with the utmost care at the outset of the project. Do you envision Director Essentials to extend beyond the web and into other forms of online/offline communications?

 

This is mostly a web-based project but we would use the logo design on print materials to promote the website and send users to it.

 

 

3. If invited as a finalist, you mention a meeting to present ideas. I’m wondering what your expectations for that meeting are. Are you looking for verbal conceptual ideas, or solid speculative visual designs?

 

We're not looking for solid speculative visual designs, but would rather see what you have done with other projects - talk about your work and how you developed the design for it.  We'd like to see some samples that would be applicable to what we are asking for, perhaps with some verbal conceptual ideas about our website.  There will be up to three finalists at the presentation meeting on October 1 at CMRLS in Shrewsbury.  Each will have an hour, which includes time for questions.  The full grant advisory committee will be invited to the meeting.  Finalists will be sent a time for their presentation.

 

 

4. Finally, do you have an overall budget that you are able to share with me? Even a ball park range would be helpful. By sharing this information, I’ll be able to put together the best possible proposal for your needs.

 

Ballpark for the website is $15,000.

 

The following questions were received late afternoon on Friday, August 22.

 

 

5.   It looks as though there is a lot of brainstorming information on the wiki site as to what types of content will exist on the final site.  It is assumed that the information architecture will be finalized

during the planning phase.  What is the anticipated page count of this site (in this case the exact # of pages is not as important as the magnitude [50 pages vs 1000 pages]?

 

The website will contain lots of links to information that is on the web. There will be some page development.  Our best estimate at this time is around 100 pages.

 

6.      All of the documentation and discussions make it clear that a major requirement of the site is that it be easily managed and updated. All of this points to the integration of a Content Management System. 

         i.           Have you reviewed any CMS vendors and narrowed down the list?  We would expect the web designer to recommend a CMS for the site.   The recommendation would need to address the number of people who will be authoring information on the site.  

         ii.           Is it expected that any licensing costs would be included in the budget guidance you provided?  Licensing costs would not be part of the web design costs.

 

7.      Approximately how many different people would be authoring / managing content on the site?  5-6 people

 

8.      Are there any technology platform requirements? 

         i.            For example, does this need to be a *Nix based application as opposed to a Windows based application?  Not at this time, as we aren’t sure where the site will be hosted.

         ii.           Are there any requirements around the programming language?  The site should utilize standard programming languages – ones that our technology consultants would be familiar with.

 

 9.      This site obviously has a very specific audience.  Will users be required to login to access content?

         i.            If so, will accounts be set up beforehand or will users be able to register?

         ii.           Is there any need / way to verify that a user is actually affiliated to a library, or is security not going to be that strict?

         iii.          Will some content be public and some be private?

 

We do not anticipate that users will need to login to access the content at this time.

 

10.    There are several community based features that are discussed (blogs, forums, potentially wiki).  Will these be enough of a focus on the site to require a community platform?  Do you envision additional

community features in the future?

         i.            How would / should these types of feature be moderated?

 

These will not be the major focus of the site.  We would look to the designer for advice.  We expect that moderation would be shared by those managing the content.

 

11.     Reading through some of the possible content, it seems as though a lot of the content could potentially be imported from multiple external entities.  Is the vision to import feeds of content from external resources or would all content be original (or re-keyed) for this particular site?

 

The vision is to import feeds of content all ready available and not to re-create or re-key the information.

 

12.     Will this site be integrated with any other 3rd party applications? 

 

At this point, we do not anticipate that it will.

 

13.     Are there any details around possible design requirements for the site?

 

 We would want the pages to be consistent throughout – no other requirements.