A proposal has gone to the MLA Board of Directors recommending that the MLA migrate the public information side of its website to WordPress from its current home in YourMembership (MLA’s third-party member and content management system).
This proposal can be read in the Draft Montreal minutes, available here (see pages 20-21).
Over the next two weeks, the Web Manager and Web Committee would like to open up a channel for membership feedback to this proposal.
A few things to know about the proposal:
- The entire site would not be moved. All e-commerce and the core MLA directory would remain in YourMembership. However, this project would aim to setup the sites so that they work together, not separately, under one domain, https://musiclibraryassoc.org.
- The migration would be that – a migration of site content and not a restructuring of that content. Overall, the information architecture of the site will remain constant. The current look-and-feel of the MLA website would also remain, but with some meaningful design upgrades (especially for mobile display).
- The migration is being recommended to improve front-end use of the site (improving user experience) and back-end maintenance of the site (improving tools and workflows for keeping information current with fewer individual page edits and more global edits).
- The migration is also being recommended so that the MLA can author content in a variety of types beyond that which YourMembership provides.
It’s always helpful to see examples of how such a migration would look and function, so here are two ways to do just that.
To test the feasibility of migrating the site, the Board approved testing WordPress’s capabilities through a migration of the CMC website.
- Current CMC site here: https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/mpage/cmc
- WordPress version of the CMC site here: http://cmc.wp.musiclibraryassoc.org
Several test pages using content from the MLA website were also created, and can be seen using the links below:
- Duckles Award: http://wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/vincent-h-duckles-award/
- Music Librarianship: http://wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/music-librarianship/
Many MLA members have worked in YourMembership, WordPress, and other content management systems. We welcome member feedback and questions about this proposal, as well as your ideas for the future of the MLA website.
Please use the form below to submit feedback, questions, and ideas about the MLA Website and this migration proposal.
Thank you,
Katie Buehner, MLA Web Manager