Workshop at mda 2003 Conference - 9 September 2003

The following workshop on Quality Assurance For Museum Web Sites was given at the mda 2003 Conference. The workshop was held on Tuesday 9^th September 2003, the day prior to the conference.

Workshop Details

Title

Quality Assurance For Museum Web Sites

Abstract

The World Wide Web is widely used across the cultural heritage sector. Many museums will have a presence on the Web, ranging for small Web sites containing brief details about the museum to large-scale Web site providing interactive capabilities. Whatever the scale of the Web site there is a clear requirement to ensure that the Web service functions correctly and is widely accessible. In order to satisfy these requirements in is necessary for Web sites to implement appropriate standards and best practices. This is needed not only when a Web site is initially built, but also during the Web site's life time.
This workshop session will provide an opportunity to learn about the quality assurance procedures which can held ensure that Web sites function effectively.

Format

The workshop will consist of a number of presentations, together with group exercises which will seek to identify the key requirements for quality Web services and approaches to ensuring these requirements are met.
Workshop participants will be provided with a set of handouts which will provide details of QA procedures which participants will be able to evaluate once they return to work.

Requirements

The workshop will require a networked PC and a Web browser and Microsoft PowerPoint. A data projector will also be needed.

Times

Registration will take place from 10:00-10:30. The workshop will start at 10:30 and finish at 16:00.

Please note that after lunch workshop participants will return for the afternoon session which will be held jointly with participants in the "Collection Level Description Tutorial" workshop. Details of this session are given below.

Title

Quality Assurance For Collection Level Description Metadata

Abstract

The World Wide Web is widely used across the cultural heritage sector. Many museums will have a presence on the Web, ranging for small Web sites containing brief details about the museum to large-scale Web site providing interactive capabilities. Whatever the scale of the Web site there is a clear requirement to ensure that the Web service functions correctly and is widely accessible. In order to satisfy these requirements in is necessary for Web sites to implement appropriate standards and best practices. This is needed not only when a Web site is initially built, but also during the Web site's life-time. This workshop session will provide an opportunity to learn about the quality assurance procedures which can ensure that Web sites function effectively.
During the afternoon session of this workshop participants will be joined by those from the Collections Level Description Workshop to focus on Quality Assurance for Collection Level Description Metadata. Many museums will have a requirement to provide collection level description (CLD) metadata which describe their collections of resources. Increasingly we will find portals being developed which will make use of CLD metadata to enable users to discover collections of interest to them. It is clearly essential that CLD metadata provides relevant and up-to-date information and that it can be integrated with CLD metadata from other sources. Issues surrounding Standards, Terminology and Accessibility will be looked at. This participative workshop session will provide an opportunity for delegates to investigate the requirements for appropriate quality assurance procedures which will ensure that CLD metadata can be used to provide effective services.

Materials

Slides

Quality Assurance For Museum Web Sites: Introduction

[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

QA For Web Sites

[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

QA Tools

[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

QA Tools - Examples

[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

QA Framework

[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

Quality Assurance For Web Sites: Review

[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

Quality Assurance For Collection Description Metadata

[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

Surveys

Surveys of Selected Museum Web Sites

[Surveys Menu]

Survey of HTML Compliance

[HTML format]

Survey of CSS Compliance

[HTML format]

Survey of Compliance With Accessibility Guidelines

[HTML format]

Survey of Server Software

[HTML format]

Survey of 404 error pages

[HTML format]

Survey of Internet Archive

[HTML format]

Rolling Demo

Rolling Demo of Selected Museum Web Sites

[Rolling Demo]

Exercises

QA Exercises

[MS Word 97/2000 format]

Benchmarking Exercises (for use at work

[MS Word 97/2000 format]

Timetable

The draft timetable is given below.

After lunch and the mda meeting the workshop will continue. The afternoon session will be a combined one with delegates from the "Collection-Level Description" workshop. The aim of the afternoon session is to apply the QA principles to Collection-Level Description metadata.

URLs Used During Workshop

The following URLs will be used during the workshop.

Other URLs

The following URLs may also be useful.

Browser Extensions

Checking Web Site Performance

Evaluating Different Browsers

Evaluating Site Accessibility

Evaluating Your Organisational Home Page

Link Checker

Next Generation Validation Tools

WebWatch

Rolling Demonstrations