CMS Interview

I interviewed the Computer Services Librarian of a public library branch in Georgia. I conducted the interview by email. Below are the answers to the assigned questions. 

How and where did you hear about CMS?

At a conference, from the webmaster at DeKalb Public Library.

What were your motivations to adopt CMS for its current use (library

website)?

The ability to have a variety of staff members adding content to the web page.

What were your decision making criteria? and What is the name of CMS

they are using now?

Wordpress. Of the CMSs that we tested, Workpress was easiest to deploy (the

least amount of edits to php scripts and other server-side fixes) and the

most user friendly for users adding content.

What are the important benefits or advantages of CMS they are using

now over the old system or another CMS system they've used in the past?

CMS based pages Google well. With the CMS, we now have multiples staff

members adding content directly to the web page where before there was just

one. The CMS has improved the overall organization of the webpage.

How was the learning curve?

Significant. Though you can muddle along with a CMS, at some point, you will

need to become an expert or to hire an expert to fully experience the

benefits of a CMS.

The interview was informative because I could understand the context of the of the answers better after our readings and discussions. I also was very surprised that the same reason that my fellow classmates mentioned for a CMS were also restated by my interviewee. It's one thing to speak of hypothetical situations, but another to know that our thought process is along the same lines as a librarian currently working in the field. I currently aid in adding an editing a CMS and I think this is one of the most important aspect. As a future librarian technical competency is important. Libraries do not function without  the help of many staff members and I think it makes sense that more than one individual would contribute.