Vocabulary Adventures Part 2 and Other Things Filling My Time

More work this week is coming to fruition. The second guide that I created for the MCFL staff has been reviewed, and I finally received feedback. Mostly it was an overwhelmingly positive review, with only one small change that was needed, and was quickly taken care of. Oddly enough, I found a discrepancy on the site when I went to double-check something for that small change. A selection menu that is supposed to allow multiple choices is only single-choice; admittedly, a small thing and one that's easily remedied--I found the place to enable the multiple selection feature. But before I go "fixing" things, I have to get permission. So along with the final draft of the guide, I included this conflict that I found so my site supervisor can decide if it does in fact need to be changed.

My other project-in-progress, the controlled vocabulary that I created, is now moving forward again. I had submitted the controlled vocabulary for review, went over everything with my site supervisor during my last on-site day and submitted a final draft; now I am able to take the next step of the process. Using the controlled vocabulary, I have to create a taxonomy on Drupal (this step has actually already been completed at the time this blog was written). The taxonomy is used to automatically generate a selection menu which users (the MCFL staff) can choose from as part of content classification. It will now be available to assign to new content. I also need this selection menu so that the controlled vocabulary can be assigned to forms, policies, and procedures already up on the site. The interface on Drupal for starting this process was very easy to understand and navigate for me since I'm already moderately familiar with Drupal (and becoming more so all the time). I was able to create and define my taxonomy in about an hour, maybe a little less. The next part of the process--assigning controlled vocabulary terms to existing content--is going to be much more time-consuming since I have to edit each content item individually. And I need to compare existing tags with the controlled vocabulary to make sure all relevant topics are being correctly assigned. Almost two hours of work didn't get me through all the forms yet, so I know I have a number of hours still ahead of me on this.

Lastly, I turned in a guide for library staff for adding content to the Resources by Subject pages on the library's public site. You can actually see this area here (scroll down to the Resources by Subject block). The guide explains how to add and edit the four types of content that can appear on the subject pages. See if you can find all four types! Only three weeks left of internship work, and it feels like I have enough to do now to fill those three weeks! And I still have my last on-site day to look forward to.

With my going on and on about my internship, you would think that I haven't had any other fun. Not true. With the warmer weather and Spring now holding fast, I ended up adding yet another planter to the collection slowly growing (forgive the pun) outside my front door. When Scooter and I had that garden project two years ago behind the apartment building where we live, we planted a small collection of herbs--which, two years later, are still growing strong. But we had no basil or thyme--both herbs that my Italian cooking must have! So, Scooter got my new planter situated and hanging off the rail (I've run out of ground space and have to build up), and I found two lovely specimens--one of basil, one of lemon thyme--that went into the planter. My fresh herb stock is now complete. Well, except for maybe Italian parsley. That would be nice to have growing on my porch too. I miss having a large garden full of growing things, but time is a precious commodity that I never seem to have enough of. Once I finish my MLIS, I keep telling myself, once school is done I will have the time for gardening and more cooking and more traveling.

Ah, well. On to more schoolwork!

Basil and thyme are great planter partners!