Those who administer even the smallest of library Web sites find out quickly that the task of maintaining URL's, hypertext links, and annotations is very time consuming.  The manual coding of documents using HTML and maintaining the associated document file system is a laborious process.  Maintaining larger Web sites requires even more time and effort and, in many cases, requires a full-time Web Manager.

   One possible way to reduce maintenance time is the use of dynamic documents.  With dynamic documents, all the files (Web documents, media files, etc.) are assembled together and viewed as site assets.  These assets are then added individually to a database system along with other identifying information.  When a customer makes a request the resulting document is created on-the-fly and contains only those items which match the query.

   There are some advantages to this approach.  Dynamic documents reduce dependence on hand coding using HTML.  New assets can be added by library staff without the need to understand HTML.  The responsibility of maintaining certain content, library hours or staff information for example, could shift to staff members, including Administrative Assistants.  Adding and maintaining dynamic content can even be performed with a Web interface.   Developing this type of system will require expertise and development time, but once completed it should require little technical maintenance.

For More Information:

• Macromedia's ColdFusion 

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