Legal Resources Research Tools Subjects Services News Links Site Index

	Information Services Tools & Resources

	Links to Other Information Services Sites
	New MRSC Library Acquisitions
	E-Government Resources and Articles
	DIS TechMall

	MRSC Tools & Resources

	Library Index to Ordinances, Articles and Contracts
	Library Loan Request
	MRSC Publications List
	Research Request
	Sample Local Government Docs

> Subjects > Information Services > Webmasters Meetings > September 22, 2005 > New MRSC site-related projects

Printer Friendly

Local Government Webmasters Meeting - September 22, 2005

New MRSC site-related projects

Don Edlin, Web Developer/E-government Specialist; with additions by Quinn Robinson, Web Services Specialist, Municipal Research & Services Center of Washington

MRSC recently added mapping capabilities to the MRSC site for all cities in the State of Washington; you can see a sample map for the City of Seattle using the Google Maps API
- There are a number of major services that provide maps to other web sites; please carefully read terms of service before selecting a service to use on your site:
- If you need latitude and longitude information, you can consult www.geocoder.us which provides latitude and longitude for most addresses in the United States
- You can insert addresses contained in XML files into the mapping APIs in order to create maps on the fly; some ASP.NET examples are available on www.4guysfromrolla.com
MRSC is redesigning the www.mrsc.org site in order to consolidate its main site and its text-only site into one site
- Text-only sites are regarded as not as up to date as other sites so those using screen readers often avoid them and go to the regular site instead
- Using CSS, and image compression has reduced the size of the MRSC homepage by half
- To create basic CSS pages without tables, use the online Layout-o-matic
- For more on accessibility, see Web Authoring for Accessibility (59 KB), by Jeff Witzel of the University of Washington
- Some Internet Explorer-specific hacks may be necessary to make it work
- Other helpful tools may assist in site development
  - Mozilla Firefox extensions assist web developers in creating and validating sites
    - The Web Developer Extension has contains a number of essential tools
    - The Aardvark Extension helps explore CSS and HTML elements
    - The LinkChecker Extension checks links on open pages
  - Internet Explorer users can use other tools
    - The Web Accessibility Toolbar scans your pages for ways you can improve accessibility
  - The WebXACT tool will test pages for quality, accessibility, and privacy issues
MRSC is creating a new search system for documents and Web pages
- Two ways to find information
  - Browse information based on library classification system
  - Search information contained in database
    - Results grouped by Web pages, sample documents, library materials and topical categories
- Integrated with links to full-text search