InfoSoup Home Page Update

Now that all the library catalog stations have been updated, we are going to move forward with updating the main InfoSoup home page. I will launch the new home page this Thursday morning, November 12th. You can see a preview on our staging server at http://www.infosoup.org:2082/  This week I will also begin updating the supplemental InfoSoup pages, such as Research and Homework Help, Local History, Wiscat, Shoutbomb, Suggest a Purchase etc. The main goal is that all of the InfoSoup pages will eventually have the same header and navigation as the new Encore catalog. Some pages, such as the book blogs, will take a little longer to update.

The content on the new homepage is essentially the same but has been move around a little and updated. The biggest change is that all the links in the right hand column have been moved to the drop down menus, most under My Library and Help. Links to the new materials database and to BookLetters book lists are under the What to Read? menu and also displayed on the home page under the What to Read Next? section. The Job & Career page and Language Learning page are under the Research & Learning menu.

To the right of the search box is a What's Simmering section that will be updated regularly to highlight new resources and upcoming events etc. The rest of the homepage is meant to highlight our digital collections, reader's advisory tools, and research and local history resources. 

A link to the classic catalog will be available from the My Library menu and also at the bottom of the page. The classic catalog header will also change to match the new navigation, but will be clearly be label "Classic InfoSoup." The classic catalog page will look like this: http://www.infosoup.org:2082/screens/classic.html. It would have been nice to leave "classic" alone, but the way the catalog shares headers across all pages made this difficult. Book covers for the classic catalog on the staging server are not working, but they will display once the site is live. Also note that, while you can login on the staging server, some of the subsequent navigation may not work.

The new homepage has a "responsive design" and will resize nicely for display on phones and tablets. Once the new page is live, I will ask Innovative to remove the automatic redirect to m.infosoup.org (Airpac). Searching on a small screen device from www.infosoup.org will automatically take users to Encore mobile.

I don't think users will have trouble finding their way around, but I will try to post a brief help document highlighting the major changes. Anyone using Internet Explorer 8 or earlier will be redirected to the Encore start page.

If you take a look at the new page and click on any of the links, just remember to use your back button to get back to the staging server, as home button links will like you take you back to the live InfoSoup page. Please let me know if you have any questions.Thanks,

Evan