Purpose -

The Stewart Library's official presence on the Internet is its website. As such, the site serves as both a gateway to the Library's resources and services and a public relations tool which presents and promotes the Library in a virtual environment.

By providing the University community with electronic access to information resources, the website directly supports the Library's mission and goals. By appropriately presenting and promoting the Library in a virtual environment, the site conveys to visitors a positive image of the Stewart Library and Weber State University.

Because of its duality of purpose, the Library's website will present a consistent, cohesive, and visually attractive image. It will be interactive and intuitive to users, easily navigated and well organized. The information included on the site will be current and accurate. 

As the site is operating within an higher education environment, it will adhere to recognized standards of academic and intellectual freedom. It will also comply with all applicable Weber State University and Stewart Library policies.

Assessment of the Website -

To ensure that the Library's website effectively meets the needs of the University community, systematic assessment of the site will be an ongoing priority. In assessing the site, a variety of assessment methodologies will be employed, including formal usability studies. Data collected from usability studies, server based usage statistics, user recommendations and suggestions, and other sources will be carefully analyzed and used to improve the site.

Administrative Responsibility -

To ensure that its website effectively meets the purposes stated above, the Library has assigned oversight responsibility for the site to the Systems Librarian with responsibilities including but not limited to:

• Design
• Structure
• Navigation
• Metacontent
• Assignment of page responsibilities
• Usability
• Assessment

While overall responsibility for the site resides with the Systems Librarian, the responsibility for developing and maintaining specific pages on the site will be shared among Library faculty and staff in an inclusive, consultive, collaborative manner.  Pages created by Library faculty and staff in support of the purposes stated above will reside on the library web server, or on an affiliated server directly administered by Library Systems.  Page exemptions will be allowed only when approved by W.A.G.

In making decisions effecting the website, the Systems Librarian will consult closely with the Web Administrator, the Systems Administrator, the Web Advisory Group and others as appropriate.

For so long as the web server is physically housed with Computing Services, Systems will have oversight responsibilities for technical support and maintenance of the server. When the web server be relocated to the Library, Systems will provide direct technical support and maintenance.  To facilitate administration and maintenance of the website,

Web Advisory Group -

To develop and maintain the website the Library Web Advisory Group will have responsibilities including but not limited to:

• Working in an inclusive, consultive, collaborative manneron all website issues
• Recommending and reviewing page responsibilities and authoring guidelines
• Ensuring public pages are properly maintained

The composition of the Web Advisory Group includes one voting representative from:

• Access Services
• Archives & Special Collections
• Bibliographic Services (position open until filled by Bibliographic Services Librarian)
• Collection Management
• Instruction
• Library Administration
• Reference
• Usability Committee Chairperson
• Systems

The voting representative from each of the various teams will be selected by the respective team, will serve two year terms and may be reappointed.  The Chair of W.A.G. will vote only in case of a tie.  The Systems Administrator will serve as an ex-officio member.

The Systems Librarian will serve as chair of the Web Advisory Group and will schedule regular meetings of the Group. The Web Administrator and the University Librarian will serve as ex officio members.

As is the case with all Library meetings, the meetings of the Web Advisory Group are open meetings. All Library faculty and staff are welcome to attend the meetings and participate in the discussion.

Rights and Responsibilities -

• Library faculty and staff, as page owners, have the right to put up official webpages as part of their assignment. Page owners are responsible for creating and/or maintaining specific webpages and for ensuring that their pages conform to the Library's web guidelines.
• Team Leaders are responsible for ensuring the review and maintenance of pages assigned to their teams. Specific responsibilities may be delegated to other members of the team.

Maintenance of Library Webpages -

The Library will continuously collect recommendations for enhancements, updates, improvements and changes to its website. These recommendations will be developed by WAG within a timeframe specified by a planning calendar on the basis of data collected from usability studies, server based usage statistics, user recommendations and suggestions, and other sources.

Given the fluid nature of the web, the site will require frequent review, updating, and assessment. At a minimum, all pages will be reviewed and updated by the page owner prior to the beginning of Fall Semester. Reminders to review and/or update pages will be sent out in the Spring of each year. Pages that are not maintained in a timely manner, as defined by Library or team policies or guidelines, are subject to being unlinked from the homepage. Page owners will be notified at least a week before the unlinking occurs.

A link checking program will be run monthly by Systems. Broken links requiring a new URL or other content decisions will be referred to the page owner for repair or removal.

Problems on all pages should be repaired as quickly as possible. Problems on upper level pages, particularly database links, should be reported immediately to the Head of Reference & Information Services  or Web Administrator for immediate repair.

Changes to primary level pages and major changes to secondary level pages will be made only in consultation with and following notification to WAG; lesser changes, such as adding a database or service will be made by the page owner. Making changes to tertiary and lower pages is the responsibility of the page owner.

• Primary pages - the home page and any page linked from it
• Secondary pages - pages that link from primary pages
• Tertiary and lower pages - all others

Whenever possible, changes to upper level pages should be made only during semester breaks.

Page Guidelines -

All Stewart Library public web pages will include:

• the official Library web logo (when adopted)
• the official navigation bars
• a content title as detailed in the Library's web guidelines
• a copyright notice
• an email link to the page owner
• a date indicating the last time the page was updated
• appropriate metacontent (for pages created after 01/01/03)

All official, public pages will follow the most recent edition of the Library's web authoring guidelines. Each new page will be reviewed for typos, broken links, adherence to guidelines, accessibility, etc. Pages at the primary and secondary page level that do not conform are subject to being unlinked from the homepage.

Internal information (committee information, minutes, policies, etc.) may reside in either a public or an intranet folder at the discretion of respective Team.

Links from official Library webpages to personal pages will be allowed only from lower level pages, for example, a bibliographer's page. As these pages will be linked to official pages, they must be job-related.

All pages will use copyrighted materials appropriately.

Security and Permissions -

Systems will have oversight responsibility for security and archival backups.

Systems will consult with WSU Computing Services on security maintenance, upgrades and system enhancements and will coordinate changes with the Head of Reference & Information Services.

Systems will administer permissions for the website and will have permissions for all official pages.

Team leaders will have permissions for all pages for which they are responsible or, if they wish to do so, may designate a member of their team in their place.

Page owners will have permissions for their pages and for all others for which they need authoring rights.

Policy Review Process -

As is the case with all Library policies, this policy will be reviewed annually and revised as needed.

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[Approved by Library Council, 02/04/2003]