Web CMS

Please find attached a Request for Proposals (RFP) from the University of Southern Maine for building an information architecture in the areas of Libraries and Technology. 

The University has recently adopted a new Information Architecture  and is currently migrating content to this architecture. Project information can be found at: usm.maine.edu/webcms. This RFP is to build out the sub-section of the University relating to Libraries and Technology. Details are included in the attached RFP. Questions can be directed to Stephen Houser <houser@usm.maine.edu>.

Stephen Houser
Executive Director for Computing Services

David Nutty
University Librarian and Director of ITMS

A monumental amount of effort has gone into the development of USM's next generation website. Your work and time has been essential to getting us where we are now. Unfortunately it's not yet where we need it to be for an effective, public, launch. The content reviews that have been conducted revealed some gaps in critical content that need to be filled before our new site is accessed by students and others in the community. 

Over the next few weeks, we will literally march through the major tabs (content areas) on the new website and work with you to fill in those gaps.  More details and the schedule for these focused efforts are shown below.  Please be aware of the schedule, and ready to complete or polish your content where needed. Using the content area tabs, perform a self-review and proofread in advance of your scheduled week.

In order to keep moving forward, we will have a "beta" launch tomorrow, May 19. This step will make the new USM Web CMS site visible to the entire University community and give everyone the opportunity to preview the work that has been done and contribute to resolving any gaps in the content.  

We have no doubt that the new website, with its new information architecture, new design, and the content you have built will be an important step forward for the University. We are similarly confident that the focused review and finalization steps over the next few weeks will allow us to launch a site which we will all be proud of.

Stephen Houser
Executive Director for Computing Services

Schedule Details
Each week we will be focusing in on a particular content area. We will also be reviewing for readiness the area of focus for the following week. These are in the same priority order set out earlier with only a few minor changes. 

The technical implementation team has moved our draft system documentation to an online Web CMS Knowledge Base wiki which is now live.

Dear Colleagues,
As we enter into our final weeks of CMS Training Sessions prior to the launch, I’d like to thank you for your diligence and patience. In the past month, over 100 faculty and staff or about 50% of the departments and units have received training in our new Web content management system. We are far from complete, but to give you a preview of our new site to come, visit a few of the more complete sites:

• usm.maine.edu/linguistics
• usm.maine.edu/abilities-disabilities-studies
• usm.maine.edu/bookstore