THE MODUS OPERANDI OF CREATING AN ONLINE DIRECTORY OF LIS PROFESSIONALS OF TAMILNADU, INDIA : A LIVE WEB PROJECT IN WORDPRESS DOMAIN

The present study is an online endeavour by the researchers to create a web directory to give a brief account of library and information science professionals working in different institutions in Tamilnadu. The researchers have chosen Wordpress – an open source blogging software and domain – to create an online directory of LIS professionals because of its simplicity and powerful features. The researchers who have a good understanding of Wordpress blogs, collected data about 50 LIS professionals working in universities and arts and science colleges of about 10 districts. They have created the online directory with the URL www.tnlisdirectory.wordpress.com. First of all they chose theme for the blog and decided upon its layout. Then, they customized the blog with various options like site title, tagline, font style, font colour, background colour and custom header. After customization, widgets required for the blog were added. Home page was designed as a static page. The data for about 25 LIS professionals – both teaching and practicing – of higher educational institutions of Tamilnadu are uploaded in the form of posts. Links were created for about 15 LIS professionals. Interesting quotes on Librarians were also included. Six galleries to showcase the photos of about 100 LIS professionals were created to add a colourful look of the blog. Text widget and image widget were used to give ‘about information’ and ‘motivating pictures’. Search option is provided in the blog to enable the online users to search for LIS professionals. A video about the life of Dr.S.R.Ranganathan is placed in the footer sidebar along with the archives option and calendar option. The feedback received from 15 diverse LIS professionals on the design, layout and content of the blog was quite welcoming, motivating and positive. This endeavour was a different, fruitful, online learning experience for the researchers