WordPress is one of the most popular FOSS blogging tools, that is also a Content Management System (CMS). WordPress has a rich plugin architecture (to date over 18,000 plugins have been developed), enabling each library or even consortium to use it in ways unique to their own needs. It is promoted upon its ease of use and lack of coding knowledge required.

WordPress logo

WordPress is based on PHP and MySQL but you can manage your website without any knowledge of these, as long as your server has them installed. It contains a Themes features which enables users to completely change the look and feel of a page without altering any of the content. 

Websites powered by WordPress can be readily extended to feature OPAC, calendar etc with plugins.

Webinar June 2012

On June 18th 2012 Nicole Engard of Bywater Solutions, author of "Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways To Deliver Library Data" delivered a webinar for EIFL FOSS introducing WordPress and providing a wide variety of links to supporting information and exemplar projects. Liz Rea of North East Kansas Libraries then gave a personal reflection of her work with WordPress, as she now supports more than 100 libraries using the software.

You can access the recording of the session here (if your connection is too intermittent to view the recording online, we can provide it to you as a Zip file to download and view offline - just contact simon.ball [at] eifl.net)

You can download Nicole's presentation here.

Related links:

Software download page

Hosted blog site

Community for libraries using WordPress

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