Their program was very similar in content to the Web Portals panel I had attended on Friday, especially the NC State My Library program. The advantages of web databases over lists on static web pages are that it is easier to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate information in a web database, plus the databases are interactive, user-centered, and customizable. In the long run that saves librarians time. In addition to the obvious advantages, California Poly decided to use web databases because they provided increased services by building on current library services and allowing users to follow their interests, thus expanding the role of the librarian. The web databases at California Polytechnic are built using Oracle and Java.
All interfaces are easy to use and require no knowledge of html.
Faculty can create dynamic web sites to find information, keep current in their field, utilize library services and combine that with an online syllabus and an electronic course pack. Librarians have a faculty database to communicate with groups of faculty and track their research needs. There is also a reference database containing problem reference questions with answers and class assignments. Finally, there is a digital database called Flexmedia which contains text, sound, video, and images each with their own indexing and meta data. Faculty using Flexmedia retain ownership of their data and have control over adding and deleting their entries.