Adding and Maintaining Current News Items

From Web Management Committee Policies and Procedures

News Items Listing on Libraries' Homepage

News on the Library website is maintained via a blog, which allows staff to create and edit news items. News items which are posted immediately "go live" unless otherwise designated.  News items will be listed in reverse chronological order by date submitted, i.e. the item submitted most recently will be at the top of the list.  No more than five news items will be displayed on the libraries homepage at any time. The library new blog will contain all of the news for the library and will be linked to via the Libraries homepage.

Who Creates and Edits Library News Items

News items to be displayed on current news page and the top page of the public website may be created and/or edited by any AD or Department Head, or by unit coordinators for Interlibrary Loan and the Integrated Library System. Department Heads or ADs may request that other personnel may be added to the list of personnel who can update the current library news. 

What Types of Items May be Listed as News Items

Routine News Items are defined as any of the following:

1. Announcements of new library services or changes in existing services
2. Announcements of new library policies
3. Announcement of new library materials
4. Planned downtime of major services such as the Library Catalog, Network, outages affecting multiple electronic resources, etc.
5. Planned closure of libraries, departments, or services contrary to regular posted hours.   (Unplanned (i.e. short notice) closures will fall under "emergency" news requests.)
6. Library surveys

Requests for other types of news items must be referred to the Web Management Committee for approval.   The WMC may add to the above list as needed.

Requirements for Content

All announcements in categories 1-3, above, must be in the form of a link to full information found elsewhere on the public website.   This is to ensure that when the item is no longer "news" and the news item is removed, the information about the service or policy is still available on the site.   See section A.1., above.

Duration of News Item Postings

Duration of news item listings will be determined according to the type of announcement.   The following table presents recommended guidelines for the posting of a news item on the current news page.   This table applies to both the Library News Pages as well as the Branch News. 

Type of News	Duration of Posting
New service, change in service	8 weeks of main semester*
New policy	8 weeks of main semester*
New materials	8 weeks of main semester*
Planned down time	Remove as soon as situation is over
Planned closure	Remove as soon as situation is over
Library Survey	Survey itself should include an end date and should be removed soon after that date
Job postings	Remove when positions are filled

All news postings must include the date posted

*Time posted during an intersession will not be included in the 8 weeks.   For example, a news item posted on May 15 will stay up until July 15.   The latter half of May is intersession; summer sessions start in early June.

Branch News

Branch Library Coordinators will be the news content providers for their respective branch library pages.  However, Branch Library Coordinators may also request that other individuals within the branch be allowed to update branch news content.

Procedures for Adding News Items

• News items may be added or updated via theLibrary News Blog or the appropriate Branch Library blog.
  
• It is the responsibility of the person creating the news item to make sure that the proposed content is accurate and will reflect well on the libraries.