[Hidden-tech] organizing an online library

[Kelly Albrecht]

Sounds like a good case for Solr search. You would enter each resource 
into a CMS as content. You could then tag each resource with as many of 
the relevant items (subject, grade level, expertise (beginner, 
intermediate), etc.) as you see fit. You then connect that CMS to Solr 
and each of these tags, and many other aspects of the resource, become 
"facets."

Facets are an awesome way to find what you are looking for. You may have 
used facets to find what you were looking for on sites like New Egg, or 
Lowes, or B & H Photo. Solr makes this possible.

Personally I would use Drupal for this and connect it to Solr. Each 
resource type would be a Content Type. Things like subject, grade level, 
expertise (beginner, intermediate), etc. would be fields on each 
relevant Content Type. Solr would take it from there (plus maybe a 
little site design to get the user started).

You can try out Drupal and Solr on Drupal's website drupal.org. Search 
for something and the facets show up on the right side. When using Solr, 
it is not required to start with a search either.

I do think this is a little much for Wordpress, but others on the list 
may have some good examples of Wordpress being a good fit. There is a 
Solr plugin for Wordpress too.

CHEERS!
kelly

On 08/22/2011 07:29 PM, Chris Landry wrote:
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> Hey all,
>
> A client of mine wants to redesign a web site that contains a large number of educational resources: books, links, lesson plans, conference materials, book reviews, etc. I'm trying to help them think about how to do this.
>
> Not only are there lots of different kinds of materials, but there could be a number of possible ways to find the most relevant materials: subject, grade level, expertise (beginner, intermediate), etc.
>
> I'd love to see great examples of this kind of thing in WordPress, and/or suggestions about how to begin thinking of good organization of a diverse collection of online materials.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Chris
>
>
> Chris Landry
> Landry Communications
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