Preface: Unleashing the Potential of Database-Driven Web Sites

Creating database-driven Web pages is a widespread practice in libraries today. Many of those who haven’t yet done it are aware of the need and in the planning stages for implementing a solution. No matter what stage of that process you find yourself–from conceptualizing the need for a database to implementing a second-generation solution–it’s likely your experience to date has raised more questions, both technical and non-technical, than you have answers for. This volume contains contributions that range across a spectrum of complexity: from do-it-yourself solutions to those that require a team. The applications described here use both commercial and open source tools to implement typical library Web services. The focus is not on the technology, however, but rather its utility in solving these problems and helping to advance the library’s digital “face,” that is, its Web site. Apart from technology, an equally interesting way to look at these projects is how the tool of database-driven Web content can expand the reach of the library. New services can be created that were either impractical or impossible using static HTML-based Web sites. Examples would be Ogilvie and Jewell’s discussion of creating a complex, personalized portal (“Partnering to Build a State Portal: MyCalifornia”), and Frost’s project to organize and describe online reference tools for a broad-based collegiate audience (“The Internet Collegiate Reference Collection”). Underhill and Palmer (“Archival Content Anywhere@ Anytime”) show how opening up a library’s unique special collections