Interview with Mike Benson
Hoover Public Library
http://hooverlibrary.org/The Hoover Public Library is located in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham.
Lynn: Good Morning, I am speaking this morning with Mike Benson from the Hoover Public Library. Mr. Benson, could you give us a little background information. For example, how long have you been there?
Mike (laughing): A long time… Let’s see what the intranet says about it. It says I’ve been here since 1996. Well, that’s partly true. I actually started as a page in high school. Then I was hired in 1996 while in college to work in the reference and fiction sections while in college.
Lynn: What attracted you to the library?
Mike: I liked working in reference because it was like playing detective every day so see if you could find the answers to people’s questions. I also liked learning new things.
Lynn: You mentioned that you haven’t been here the whole time. What else did you do?
Mike: I got a degree in Art. I then left and went into the print production and advertising field. When a technical job opened here at the library, I decided to apply. That was eight years ago.
Lynn: We have been studying about content management systems. I understand that you use one in your library. Where you the instigator? How did you find out about content management systems?
Mike: I used Microsoft Frontpage to begin with. Then I moved to using Dreamweaver. I was not happy with having to update so many pages for one event. There was so much going on at the library that I was constantly having to update pages. For example, when we had one kid event, I had to update the homepage, then the kid page, then the adult page, then the current event page. So, I began researching for new software to use. I went on some websites and talked to some other technical people. They kept asking me: Why I was trying to reinvent the wheel? Why was I still doing a static webpage? They suggested that I take a look at content management systems. Most of them at the time were trying out Drupal.
Lynn: So, what ended up being your motivation to adopt a content management system?
Mike: When I saw the power that it could give me. I had been doing static pages for a long time and database editing. When I saw what I was able to do with Drupal, I knew that I had found a system that would work for me. No more constantly updating pages.
Lynn: Were you able to just simply implement it and the others at the library just went along?
Mike: No. That’s where my advertising expertise came into play. I knew how to sell it. They said it was okay to change it as long as it had features that they wanted.
Lynn: What type of features were they looking for?
Mike: They really did not know. They had heard the “buzz words” at conferences and wanted to make sure we stayed up-to-date. One example is they had heard that you should have RSS feeds and Newsreaders. Would they be able to have those features? I laughed and said, Yes, and so much more!
Lynn: So, what was your decision-making criteria and what CMS did you choose?
Mike: I did a lot of research and talked to a lot of people managing websites. I was looking for a program that would lessen the time I was spending on updating individual webpages. I wanted a program where I could hand off responsibility to others. I wanted to be able to add photos and videos; add RSS feeds without having to manually develop them. I chose Drupal based on the advice from others using it, its supportability, and my research. I did look at Joomla and WordPress but decided that they were too limiting. For example, to do an RSS feed, you have to have a plugin. Dupal gives different parts for RSS feeds which allows for more flexibility.
I had to pitch it to the library group. After my research, I began working for about 6 months with Drupal while still managing the static website. When I found a great theme, I showed it to the library group. They really liked it and began to get curious about the system. I was given the go ahead to build the new website using Drupal and starting setting up training for the staff. To the staff, Drupal seems static like Dreamweaver because they don’t handle the background stuff. They can now update their events and it is the only difference that they see. They didn’t understand the pain of adding photos, videos, updating that we had before.
Lynn: What were important benefits or advantages of the CMS over the use of Dreamweaver?
Mike: Here’s an example. If I decided to use a photo on Dreamweaver, I would have to use Photoshop, then change the html, then send it back through the process. It took about 10 steps to get a picture on the website. Now I can load a picture in 1 ½ minutes. It’s the same as sending an email to someone. Drupal is more fluid and changes are not so time-consuming. The biggest plus to my group was the fact that each event coordinator now has control and can edit his/her own pages. It also gives each department its own page. For example, before the children’s events always overshadowed the other departments’ events. Now, each department has a page that they can update and can be seen on the homepage. I built in an auto-delete events feature. It is one of the nicest things I’ve discovered. That’s probably the best benefit of Drupal is that it allows me more time to be innovative and add more items that are useful to our site.
Lynn: Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. I am a one-person librarian- doing it all- cataloging, referencing, circulation, and so on. How am I going to handle Drupal? What’s the learning curve? Can a non-techie handle it?
Mike: Well, that depends on what you mean by non-techie. You don’t have to write code with Drupal but knowing html code is very handy.
Lynn: What is your technology background?
Mike: My technology background comes out of my post-production degree. I did a lot of software design and editing videos in the advertising area. I was not as heavily into codes and other hard-core technical stuff. With my background, the learning curve was very steep for the first three months. So, you’ll have to spend a lot of time at first learning how to use the system. Then it levels off. Then it gets steep again as you start learning and understanding more stuff. There is a lot of activity in Drupal. It is heavy on the developer side. It has a lot of other free modules that you can add and new ones that are being developed as we speak. That is the great thing about open source software. The Drupal community is very active and shares its work with each other. The amount of time spent can be divided into two levels: the initial and the on-going. The initial is going to be extensive. You have to learn the program; go through tutorials; look at modules. Once you have some basics, you can begin. Once you start using it, the on-going time gets easier. For example, where I use to spend 1 hour updating the Dreamweaver website, I now spend 15 minutes doing it in Drupal. There is a whole sea of modules out there that will take you about a year to decide what you need.
Lynn: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Mike: No, I think I’ve rambled on enough. I would advise you to take a look at Drupal and play around with it. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how easily you can use and adapt it.
Lynn: Thank you for your time and sharing your expertise.
Mike: I enjoyed it. I like talking about things I know about. Have a nice day.
Lynn: That concludes our interview with Mike Benson, Technical Director at Hoover Public Library.
