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New Douglas County Libraries website

We were the first website in Douglas County -- and one of the first websites in Colorado (back in 1996). Today, we went live with our latest version based on Drupal, the open source content management system. (Click the heading to take a look at our website today.)

I have two distinct feelings about it. First, it represents a tremendous amount of profound intellectual labor, and I'm very proud of my staff for producing it. Second, its complexity shows. We still haven't quite figured out how to enfold all that rich content in a simple and elegant wrapper.

But the tool is open source -- that's progress. And by design, it reaches out to the community, allowing them to add their own content (although some of those modules are still under development). The library website continues its evolution from static portal to dynamic community conversation.

My newspaper columns moved around on the new site, too, and I think I've adjusted all the references now to the new location. I'm sure that this will result in a lot of broken web links.

In my latest column draft, I talk about four principles:

1. Almost everything important requires teamwork.

2. Significant achievement should be celebrated.

3. Nothing is ever done.

4. Simplicity isn't easy.

Ain't it the truth?

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