Let’s Get Small: A Microservices Approach to Library Websites

Slides on SlideShare

  • Sean Hannan, Johns Hopkins University, shannan@jhu.edu

Code4Lib 2011, Wednesday 9 February, 13:20 - 13:40

Most, if not all, library websites are housed and maintained in singular, monolithic content management systems. This is fantastic if the library website is the one place your users go for library information. But it isn’t. Users are going to Facebook, checking mobile applications, browsing portals as well as checking the library website. Wouldn’t it be great if you could update the information on all of these sites from a single source? Why maintain the library hours in five different places?

In this talk, I will show how breaking the construction of the library website into as-needed, swappable microservices can free your content to live where it needs to, as well as free you from the maintenance headaches usually involved. What kind of microservices, you ask? Well, basic templating and styling is a given, but how about a microservice that gracefully degrades your layouts for older browsers? Or enforces highfalutin typographic rules? Or optimizes your site assets to improve load times? All wonderful little black boxes that allow you to focus on the website and its content, and not the details. I promise at least one diagram. That will burn your eyes.