I'm combining Guidelines in progress with this policies document so we can link to the publicly available Blog Contributor Guidelines Document without confusion.
The Blog Working Group will recommend and set policy and procedures regarding the content, use, and installation of the blog. Members of the Blog Working Group will act as guides for new blog contributors, and will recruit blog contributors to replace members of the Working Group if needed. The Working Group will collectively plan for changes to the blog when necessary, and will set handling and routing procedures for specific issues. Any security-related issue will be reported immediately to Library Systems.
The Blog is hosted locally and run on Wordpress. Installation maintenance, upgrades, theming, and modification will be executed by Sean Hannon in consultation with the rest of the Blog Working Group. Plug-ins and widgets, if desired, will be prioritized by the Blog Working Group.
Currently Wordpress 2.2 (the original Wordpress, not the multi-user version) is installed on both the development and production instances.
The current theme is the Pool theme, which is not widget-ready. Branding includes rotating headers that include photographs of library scenes combined with the Sheridan Libraries Logo.
Please be advised that all comments and suggestions can be anonymous and are moderated for clarity, brevity, and appropriateness. We do reserve the right to post as is, decline to post, or edit. We will not post comments that contain obscenities or otherwise lack civility and respect for any persons, groups, or this university.
M-Team would like a customized version of this in the footer: "The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author(s). The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University."
Editing (see Disclaimer): Our Disclaimer notes that we reserve the right to edit comments and may decline to post comments that are inappropriate. Currently, comments may be posted anonymously. However, patrons who do supply an e-mail address may then have the comment sent to them as an e-mail as well, alerting them that their comment has had a reply.
Technical issues: Currently, comments cannot be nested, that is a comment may not reply to another comment. We hope to address this. Comments may be received two ways: sent as e-mail into the Blogs folder within the Ask Lib account (rule set up to send the e-mail there) and noted as "Comment in moderation" when the poster logs into the blog. Otherwise, there is no direct notification to the poster that they've received a comment, and this is an issue. It would help if an e-mail alert directly to the poster could be sent. Is this possible?
Contributors shall not upload, post, or otherwise make available on the blog any content protected by copyright, trademark, or other proprietary right without abiding by the doctrine of fair use, or without the express permission of the owner of the copyright, trademark or other proprietary right.
By contributing to the blog, you also acknowledge that your individual entries to the blog are licensed under a Creative Commons license.
The Sheridan Libraries Blog is using a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License for blog contributors. _Or ... we may want to consider using a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. There's only one major difference between the two: with the Share Alike license, you allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.
You, the blogger, retain your copyright for your own posts.
Licensees (people who use your content in whole or in part) must?
Creative Commons is an alternative to a traditional copyright licenses. Most original works by default are protected by copyright, which confers specific rights regarding use and distribution to the copyright holder. Creative Commons allows copyright owners to release some of those rights while retaining others, with the goal of increasing access to and sharing of intellectual property.
Creative Commons licenses give the copyright owner the ability to dictate how others may exercise his/her copyright rights -? such as the right of others to copy works, make derivative works or adaptations of works, to distribute works and/or make money from works. Creative Commons licenses attach to the work and authorize everyone who comes in contact with the work to use it consistent with the license.
Regularity in posting leads to a stronger returning readership. It's important to establish a frequent line of posting so that readers anticipate new information and come back often. If unsubscribed readers return to the blog several days in a row with no new posts, they may become frustrated and lose interest in the blog. Ideally, there should be at least one post a weekday. All new users are encouraged to post at least once a week.
Posts should be concise without sacrificing clarity of the information provided. Consider using images, particularly in longer posts. Often, the post's topic can be summarized in a paragraph or two, with more detail (if needed) provided after a break. When including URLs, embed them within text or images to take up less room.
Linking to external resources should be done as appropriate, e.g., when referring to external resources from within your blog entry and when it seems the reader would be interested in quickly navigating out to the primary source. Linking should be accomplished within the selfsame window of the blog entry; popups, while sometimes appropriate, should typically be avoided.
The blog supports a number of categories and contributors should assign at least one category to each post. RSS feeds are available for each category as well as the blog as a whole. If you'd like to add a category, please contact Meredith Shelby.
Event and Exhibition profiles: Could include announcements and promotions of upcoming events and exhibits. Content from the Spotlight on the homepage could be reused.
Multimedia: Podcasting, audio recordings, video tutorials, or visual displays of information. Tone and interaction will vary based on the topic and approach taken.
Others: Please contribute in a way that fits you! Talk to a member of the blog team for suggestions or if you would like coaching.
Images should relate directly to the content. Be creative: create original graphics if you can. If a graphic is borrowed, get permission if necessary and give credit.
Animation should be used sparingly. Avoid loops unless absolutely necessary.
Provide a descriptive title for images to assist non-graphic browsers or users of graphic browsers who tend to turn graphics off.
Must be used with discretion. Background sound could be a nuisance while video files take a long time to download. For more information on digital video compression, see this eight page JHU Digital Media Center handout.
Comments should be answered by the poster of the blog entry commented upon, unless other arrangements have been made. Blog guidelines should be followed while answering a comment.
Comments can be edited for language and length; please indicate in some fashion that the comment has been edited. See questions 2 and 8 in the Suggestion Box for examples. If a comment has a negative attitude, please try to defuse it without being defensive or going on the offensive. If a comment seems too negative to post, please contact who? to discuss deleting the comment.
Posts to the library blog should conform with the following two policies: the Sheridan Libraries Expectations for Staff Use of Computer Resources as well as JHU IT's Use Policies.
Determine in advance what sort of content you might contribute to the blog and how much time you have. For successful, time-sensitive blogging, consider using ?found content? (ready-made data from library email lists, Web news, etc.) rather than drafting original content. See the content and tone framework for possible types of posts.
Be yourself. Don't feel you need to write in a way that is uncomfortable for you. Our aim is to share the breadth of expertise (and personality!) of the Sheridan Libraries staff.
Keep the users in mind. This is a user-focused blog, where we want to emphasize content that will help, inform, guide, or amuse our users. Our primary audience is not other library specialists.
Promote the blog! We shouldn't rely on just being found. Talk up your own work and drive traffic to the blog. If there is a post that might interest someone you know, forward it.
Headlines matter. Try to be engaging and specific. Need ideas? Check out Copyblogger.
In the guidelines from Karen Schneider's site (Free Range Librarian), I like the Best Practices list, which seems very familiar because I think we've all voiced this at one time or another. I would recommend that we put them in writing, too.
I like them too. I've added a category for this on the Guide for new Blog Contributors, alongside the Content and Tone Framework. We'll flesh out more categories this afternoon.
I have edited the template to add the disclaimer to the footer of all pages. Let me know of any wording changes that need to happen.
1. Should we format the the text as lower case or does a footer need to be in caps?
2. Also, is it possible to delete the "Top" text and embedded link in the footer?
1. Thanks. I hadn't closed my browser so the style was still coming up as caps. The lc looks so much better!