Announcements

New Website Look |  Missing Links
  Fall 2010 Showcase Winners

If you have something that you think might be appropriate here, contact the Omnilore Communications Chair (Communications@Omnilore.org) . The following are arranged chronologically (most recent on top).

New Website Look

We hope you've noticed that the Omnilore Website has undergone two subtle facelifts recently. The new Website Working Group (WWG) held its first meeting on January 11th. One of its first items of business was to select a new masthead design and layout from among many originating from a professional graphic designer. This artist was the same one that recently redesigned the OLLI at CSUDH Website. Use of this artist, for this purpose, was a gift of CSUDH.

At its second meeting on February 25th, the WWG made a number of decisions aimed at improving the use of the homepage. The Group agreed to remove some pages, add some others, and improve the wording of a few of our navigation buttons. All of those decisions were implemented on 3/10/11 and now our Website has a bright new look.

We hope that the new look is not only pleasing, but also makes the Website easier to use. The changes were a team effort. We hope you agree that the new WWG is off to a good start. The WWG team members are: Maria Ashla, Mary Barling, Bob Bragonier, Mary Golob (acting facilitator), Dennis Goodno, Gary Hart, Hal Hart, Carol Johnson, Karin Merickel, Helen Stockwell, and Rick Spillane.  (Barbara Case was webmaster and WWG facilitator until 3/21/2011.  She implemented all the website changes described here.)

Item posted by bc on 03/10/11  (WWG membership updated 3/26/2011 hh)
 

Missing Links

Some of you may be wondering what happened to these three links (i.e., navigation buttons) that used to be in the left-hand General Information column of the Website's homepage: Booklist, Bookshelf, and Links, Research & Useful. At its 25 February 2011 meeting, the Website Working Group (WWG) agreed that these pages were too time-consuming to maintain for the benefits they provided. The Bookshelf and Booklist pages duplicate information that is already available in digital form on the Website by reviewing prior Bookshelf columns in the Omnilore Newsletters...so the information has not gone away, it is just less handy to use.

The problem with the Links, Research & Useful (i.e, the Internet Links) page is that, for many years now, no member of the WWG has volunteered to maintain the currency and relevancy of those links. To do that right takes a great deal of effort. In addition, search sites like Google have become so advanced that it is better for everyone to use these tools rather than to rely on a list that would, at best, always be incomplete and out of date.

We have not done away with these three pages—they remain archived on the Website. If you want to find them and look at them, click on the Search this Website [A-Z] link on the homepage. You will find each page listed alphabetically by its name.

Item posted by bc on 03/10/11
 

Fall 2010 Showcase Winners

Take a look at our recent posting of the Fall 2010 SDG Showcase Winners.

A Showcase Winner is an Omnilore honor. At the end of each trimester, everyone in each SDG is sent an email survey. On the Fall 2010 survey, there was a question at the end that asked: "Is there any one outstanding creative or scholarly work developed by a class member in the course of this SDG that you would like to see showcased on our Omnilore Website during the following trimester? If so, please identify it by the name of the author." These are the winners from that survey.

Take time to browse the list and see the type of presentations that members have found particularly outstanding. Many of the presentations can be views by clicking on their DOC, PDF, or PPT links. You'll be amazed at some of the talent and hard work demonstrated by the examples. Congratulations to all the winners!

Item posted by BC on 02/10/11