Ivan Trundle.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address) Manager, systems and publishing

We've been watching you...

Over the past year or so, the Association's website, ALIAnet, has grown from a not-insignificant 500 pages or so to a mind-numbing 3500 pages, all jam-packed with information. In that time of unprecedented growth, we have been tracking the pages that interest visitors to our site. Not unsurprisingly, our logfiles show that a vast amount of activity takes place in the ALIAppointments segment of ALIAnet - to the extent that it is only out-polled by the regular ALIAnet 'home page', our regular entry portal. Visitors have also taken a keen interest in the electronic discussion list pages (formerly known as our 'listserv' pages), and judging by the expansion of e-lists available to the public, this too is rather predictable.

Since the early days of ALIAnet, the ALIAnet 'navigation panel' has been an intrinsic part of our website, and offers a comfortable method of navigation across a rapidly-growing and diverse environment. However, it has had certain limitations, and many have commented upon the apparent random order of link placement within the panel itself. It is now proving inadequate for current and future needs. So we have revamped it entirely. And added to it. A lot. As visitors traverse ALIAnet, the navigation panel will now expand or contract according to the requirements of the current location. It is not a perfect system, as it requires the web builders to second-guess what each current location demands - but it is a vast improvement over the less-flexible system.

In the process of updating the site's navigation panel and other graphics, we have moved large chunks of ALIAnet to new locations that not only allow for further expansion, but also offer a much briefer URL for visitors to remember and type. Most of the well-visited sections of the site now have their own directory, and the need to remember long URLs has been diminished or altogether removed. For example, ALIA's electronic mailing lists can now be found at http://alia.org.au/e-lists/. However, we have left links from the old URLs for people to follow, recognising that many do not update their bookmarks frequently. Be aware, though, that it will not be possible to maintain all of these older links indefinitely. Like all good web users, you should check and review all of your stored bookmarks from time to time. Incidentally, it still surprises me that people type URLs with an ../alia/.. in the middle of the URL itself - a practice that we abandoned over four years ago.

It will take us some time to update all of the pages of ALIAnet to the 'new' format. Please be patient in this period of change. The process of updating a live site, whilst continually adding new pages on a regular basis, is a time-consuming task. We are working our way through the most-visited pages first, and progressing to those that might receive only twenty or thirty hits per week. Taking into account the massive interest shown in the ALIAppointments section of the site, we are also rapidly-expanding the material offered in this area. The recently-published Work-level guidelines and a number of employment-related issues booklets have been added recently, and by the time that you are reading this the Courses 99 booklet should be available, too. Good news for students!

E-lists on the up

We welcome on board the aliaLIBTEC list as a new addition to the ALIAnet list server. The alia98 list, serving those who wish to discuss issues in relation to the Biennial Conference, is also a relatively new entry. Moves are afoot to create a list to serve the interests of Queensland library and information workers, along the lines of the aliaNSW and aliaVIC lists. Please note that all of the public lists on ALIAnet are open to the general public. Contrary to some rumours I have heard recently, ALIA membership is NOT a prerequisite to join any of the lists shown on the e-lists page of ALIAnet. We provide these lists as a benefit to the entire library and information sector, without any requirement of affiliation or membership, but we do encourage those who use the lists - just like those who use our website - to become members of the Association. It is through membership that these services can be offered.