It Keeps Sucking Us Back In…

Every time we go to delete the blog, we find something so mortifying that we just have to share.  Can you find the misspelling on this announcement?  It’s just promoting a visit by Camila Alire, President of the American Library Association, so it’s not that embarrassing…

http://www.pratt.edu/calendar/view/camila_alire_president_of_ala_is_giving_a_talk_february_9th_2010_at_500_pm_/

A New Look

New URL, same site.

The site Dean Giannini has created and maintained speaks for itself.

Truly, there is no need to say anything snarky or negative. We hear you. SSS has gotten off track. We need only show you the SILS site and you can see for yourself. You need only take a look at how long the site has looked like this and you can make up your own mind. We urge you to re-read Norman Oder’s LJ article about this blog and the Dean’s promise of a new site.

It is fair and appropriate to hold the Dean accountable for promises made.  Unfortunately, it is also necessary to have a forum like this blog, not because we want to, but because we have to.  It’s the only kind of forum we’re “allowed” at Pratt SILS – nameless, faceless, and free from the very real fear of retribution.

One last thing – don’t confuse the commenters with the creators of this blog.  We aren’t the only ones who feel powerless and frustrated and that should mean something to those affiliated with Pratt SILS.

Information Architecture Internship!

Oh wait.  It’s not for Pratt SILS, you say?  It’s for Pratt’s site?  Oh.  We thought since the Dean had publicly promised a site redesign several months ago and students had already completed an IA assessment of the site in Walcyzk’s class…

Never mind.  That would all make too much sense and would not provide the Dean with her chance to give students the middle finger every time we look at the site.

By the way, have you heard about the Dean’s exciting yearly vacation in London, uh, I mean the Pratt SILS London program?  Colleagues must be tremendously impressed when they look at the SILS site and see who will be joining them to delve into e-publishing.  SSS can’t make this stuff up!

Optimism

The increasing willingness of students to openly acknowledge the problems associated with the SILS website and the growing enthusiasm for addressing the related issues has SSS feeling a little optimistic as we begin another semester (Thank you, Jessica).

Do you think Tula will work with students this semester to improve the Pratt SILS site or will she dig in and continue refusing to communicate with students and address this issue?

Wouldn’t It Be Nice?

If SSS or, more importantly, the poorly designed website and Dean Giannini’s responses were included in possible topics?  Instead, this hit SSS’s inbox today:

“Keyword is the newsletter of the Pratt SILS Student Association, also known as SILSSA, also known as YOU!

We are in need of articles, reviews, editorials, and short informative blurbs from any and all who are willing and able. Did you visit a particularly interesting library this summer? Go to ALA’s Annual Conference in Anaheim? Buy a fun new gadget you’d like to review? Maybe you’d like to comment on the librarian who was recently fired for writing a fictionalized account of her workplace, or review the newest search engine, Cuil (pronounced “cool”). Considering attending the Code4LibNYC meeting at Metro or the NYPL Performing Arts Library Reception for graduate students next week? Why not write up a short account for your fellow students?

Writing an article for Keyword is a great excuse to contact your contemporary library heroes and heroines and pester them with questions to your heart’s content–just take good notes and write it up for us! (SILSSA may even be able to help arrange for your favorite librarian, author, designer or programmer to come speak at SILS, in conjunction with an article, of course–just ask us!)

Writing for Keyword not only looks great on your resume, it also helps students share information with each other and keep abreast of developments in library and information sciences. (Not to mention getting practice at professional writing in a relatively safe environment.) If you’re interested in getting involved (and yes, we also need copyeditors), send an email to us at keyword.silssa@gmail.com. The deadline for the first issue is September 15, but don’t let that stop you! We publish every month, so if we get it a bit late for the first issue, you’ll be first in line for the second.

Yours,

Jessica SpeerEditor, Keyword
Vice President, SILSSA
keyword.silssa@gmail.com

Keyword is the newsletter for SILSSA, the Pratt School of Information and
Library Science Student Association and student chapter of the ALA.

Please visit our latest issue at http://pratt.edu/~silssa/keyword/keywod_may08_final.pdf

If you would like to contribute an article email keyword.silssa@gmail.com”

Funny how outraged SILS students are when a librarian is fired for writing a novel based on her library patrons, but there is nary a mention of the Dean’s threat of retribution if she found out which students were behind this blog.

Interesting that SILS was the subject of an entire blog post on LibraryJournal.com, but there is absolutely no call to comment on that noteworthy mention.  (Note:  the Dean’s promises in this post regarding the website)

Wouldn’t it be nice for an official, real, genuine acknowledgement that something is broken and the Dean refuses to fix it, refuses to work with students?  What is broken is the website and the Dean’s relationship with SILS students and it effects YOU.  Pitch that to Keyword.

New Site

Dean Giannini promised Library Journal (and us) a new and improved site that would be launched in June. What do you think?!?

Try and make sense of this

Why does the SILS site have content so divorced from any sort of context? For example, what exactly does this mean:

“Spring Festival
Participate – Enjoy Program”

And of course, “Program” is a link that takes you to a huge PDF (with no warning). For a festival that ended almost 3 months ago.

Your Assignment

Write an open letter about the site, SILS, whatever and post it in the comments. Hilarity ensues.

The Thing That Made My Eyeballs Bleed Today

Go to the Pratt SILS site. Click on Mission. Prepare yourself for typos, rampant run-on sentences, a broken link and a cacophonous layout.

Seriously, take away all of the design issues for a minute. Please, for the love of God, proofread! It would be unacceptable to hand-in a paper that looked like this. Why is it acceptable for the public face of Pratt SILS to be riddled with typos and incomprehensible sentences?

A Response

We read with great interest Norman Oder’s post on the LJ Insider blog about Pratt SILS Site Sucks. Since SSS was not contacted for a comment, we would like to take this opportunity to respond to a few key points.

First, Pratt SILS’s website is not a “temporary” site as Dean Giannini contends. It has been online since approximately 2005 in a similar iteration and can in no way be described as temporary or transitional.

Secondly, we do not criticize the site because it’s not “pretty”. We criticize it because it is hard to use. If, as Dean Giannini says, providing “content is the most important” purpose of the site, poor information design directly impacts its effectiveness for this very purpose. This is not about wanting the Pratt SILS site to be graphically pleasing (although there is nothing wrong with that and, indeed, that does make a site more pleasant to use, which increases user satisfaction). The site is rich in content, but is a hodgepodge of poorly organized information. Websites are not intended to be brochures, as Dean Giannini contends. Rather, they should be information portals that focus on key audiences and provide that information in an effective and useful manner. In addition, sites should reflect well on the institution they represent. It is incumbent upon those who design and implement sites to make them as useful as possible.

Finally, we would like to raise a key point about the anonymity of the blog. Direct talks with Dean Giannini about the SILS site have been attempted several times, and she has always been both defensive of the site and dismissive of any offers to work with her to improve it. Many students have volunteered their time and expertise to make the site a highly useful informational tool for the school, and nothing has come of it. SSS hopes Mr. Oder will continue to follow both SSS and the Pratt SILS site. We truly hope to report, along with him, on the new, attractive, and, most importantly, usable SILS site in June. We look forward to the promised redesign, just as we looked forward to past promises. If SSS doesn’t hold its breath, don’t hold it against us.