[OPEN-ILS-DOCUMENTATION] [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Question regarding circulation policies

[Lazar, Alexey Vladimirovich]

Hello.

I think there could be a pretty simple process that could help keep track of such responses and at least give the information a chance at being parsed into documentation, even if at some later undetermined time.

Truth is that it is easiest to flag informative responses and various tips for documentation work as they flow by on the mailing lists, just like it is easiest to bookmark a web resource when you happen to stumble on it, rather than to re-find it later. Truth is that it is usually not possible to do the actual documentation work immediately upon reading such good responses. Personally for me, simply remembering that there was something useful posted on a topic on a mailing list some time back.. or maybe a blog… or maybe a presentation slide… or something… does not work consistently well to retrieve that information upon a later need. Sometimes trying to find that post later becomes a tedious and frustrating experience that raises the amount of prep work required to complete the task at hand and may easily eat up the whole time allocated to that task. Learning from past fails, when it comes to browsing the web (including for Evergreen info), I bookmark just about everything I browse if there is even a hint that I might need it in the future. I organize it by topic using tags. Even imperfectly organized, a pile of bookmarks is a lot easier to search through than the whole web, much like a small set of mailing list messages would be easier to search than all of them since the beginning — in other words a very positive signal to noise ratio is guaranteed. I currently use Diigo to help with that, but that’s a different topic. Point is, flag (bookmark, save, etc.) NOW for easy retrieval at the right time later.

So, I think we need some equivalent to bookmarks for DIG to use for flagging quality content on the mailing lists. There is currently some discussion on the DIG mailing list about choosing a piece of software that could be used to better organize Evergreen documentation work. To facilitate such content flagging, all that this software needs is to be able to receive an email message and make it into a ticket/issue/bug/task (whatever you want to call it) of a specific, for example wishlist type. So, somebody on DIG sees an awesome detailed response to a topic that has a ton of evergreen documentation gold nuggets that with some work could help improve documentation. Cool - just simply forward it to the software email address and it becomes a “wishlist” item for later. I do this all the time in Redmine at work. Of course, this does not mean that I get any more time to spend on these tasks, but when I do, I don’t need to spend valuable time trying to find the source information I need. I just get going working on it, even if sometimes it only means collecting more information for a yet later time.

Conceivably, for DIG something like what I described could be done now with LP, but I think there is a consensus that it is not the best tool for DIG coordination and probably we don’t want to “pollute” LP and just keep its software development focus. However, with appropriate software, I think using a process similar to what I described could help simplify preservation and retrieval of references to potentially useful documentation material from various sources and in the long run help improve Evergreen documentation.

Any thoughts?

Aleksey


On 2013-12-18, at 10:44 , Kate Butler <KateButler at rodgerslibrary.org> wrote:

> +1 to this idea. 
> 
> I've also encountered several instances where the official documentation exists, and is correct, but is just too brief for me to understand.  A few times I've been lucky enough to find a consortium that's documented the same feature/process in a more detailed way.  It seems likely(?) that these places would be willing to have their stuff incorporated into the official docs, as long as someone else does the conversion.
> 
> Kate Butler
> Technology Librarian
> Rodgers Memorial Library (Hudson, NH)
> http://www.rodgerslibrary.org/
> 
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: open-ils-documentation-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
>> [mailto:open-ils-documentation-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On
>> Behalf Of Yamil Suarez
>> Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 11:37 AM
>> To: Documentation discussion for Evergreen software
>> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-DOCUMENTATION] FW: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL]
>> Question regarding circulation policies
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> The same thought had crossed my mind a while ago, but I never followed
>> through. I had started combing the mailing list for mentions of incomplete or
>> incorrect documentation to then assign to DIG volunteers. I will make a note
>> to use the mailing list to look for good answers that can serve as the base of
>> new documentation. Though some great answers in the past have to be
>> updated to account for changes in EG over the years.
>> 
>> We can also use this type of thinking to come up with an FAQ for the general
>> list. Like listing where t find the official installation docs.
>> 
>> Yamil
>> 
>> On Dec 18, 2013, at 10:20 AM, June Caola-Stokoe <jstokoe at cwmars.org>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi All,
>>> 
>>> Since participating in the Hackfest, I'm curious about this... As with the
>> attached example,  I see many instances on the General email list that a very
>> busy contributor generously takes the time to give a comprehensive answer
>> to a question.  Would it be beneficial simply to add the text Launchpad to
>> insure, if not already present, that the information resides in the
>> documentation to perhaps become a starting point to fill it in.
>>> 
>>> ... or maybe that's another action item for DIG to comb the General  list
>> discussions to pull out items that are useful to add... or perhaps someone has
>> already done it?
>>> 
>>> June
>>> 
>> 
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Aleksey Lazar
IS Developer and Integrator - PALS
http://www.mnpals.org/