Milestones & Achievements

2014 : Analytics Comes to the College of Nursing

One of my assignments while at UIC was the College of Nursing website. The site had recently undergone an extensive redesign but the first thing I noticed was the lack of any statistical information on usage. Huh? As a long-time user of Google Analytics, this seemed absolutely bizarre. Within ten days, I set up an Analytics account -- making sure that everything was measured from search terms to social media traffic.

2012 : User-Generated Mapping for UIC Recruitment Calendar

Transformation of the UIC Recruitment Calendar from a Google Spreadsheet to a highly interactive set of maps, dates and events -- together with a tailor-made internal reporting tool. General reaction from all those involved, "that's so cool!"

2011 : First Responsive Website at UIC

In mid-2011 I was closely following developments in HTML5 and, in particular, a whole new approach to dealing with multiple devices called 'Responsive design'. When in the latter part of that year I was called upon to develop a new template for the Offices of Admissions and Registration, I applied the ideas I was learning to that project. I'm happy to say that we were able to launch the very first Responsive website at UIC.

2008 : Creation of the Drupal4Lib ListServ & 1st Chair of LITA Drupal4Lib Interest Group

Exasperated by the often confusing and contradictory information related to Drupal on other library-related ListServs, I created the Drupal4Lib ListServ -- with the participation of Drupal evangelist, Cary Gordon. The ListServ quickly became one of the primary sources for information related to Drupal among librarians. There are now over 1,000 subscribers. A couple of months after its creation, we organized the LITA Drupal4Lib IG at the ALA Conference in Anaheim. Served as first chair.

2006 : Statewide Volunteer Network

Made important contributions to the development of a state-wide communication network consisting of local announcement hubs (listservs) with local monthly meetings (meet-ups) and targeted volunteer opportunities. These activities continued in various manifestations (and different sites) through the Obama period.

2004 : First Content Management System

Having spent the entire year running a 'static' volunteer website in Illinois for presidential candidate John Kerry, I started looking for ways to automate production.  There was an extremely confusing array of possibilities -- this was 2004, after all.  I finally settled on a very early version of Drupal

2002 : Early News Blog at Baruch College (CUNY)

Set up an early news and announcement blog for Library Administration at Baruch College CUNY.

2001 : Streaming Video Server (RealMedia) at Baruch College

From soup to nuts the old fashion way: set up Win2k Server, installed Real Server, shot video, edited, compressed for three different connection speeds, uploaded. (Baruch Coll. Library, CUNY, Fall 2001; RealMedia 8.0).