UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
STAFF PAGES 		GUIDELINES for Library Web Site / Ongoing Process for Reviewing Web Pages

Revised: August 2001

Electronic Resources Quadrant

BACKGROUND

PURPOSE
The University Library's web pages provide a gateway to its collections and services. They also offer information about the library: its sites, staff, and current activities and initiatives.

AUDIENCE

The primary audience for the web pages is UIC faculty, staff and students, whether they access these pages from any UIC campus or off-campus. An important secondary audience consists of Illinois citizens, as well as the global community of scholars, professionals and students.

INTENDED USE

The web pages should accommodate a diverse range of users from novices through expert users, and should allow users to:

A.Identify, locate or access resources that meet their information needs, whether at the University Library and/or available elsewhere.

B.Access documentation about resources and services and library systems.

C.Communicate with library personnel to request materials or services.

D.To ask a question or to express a concern.

GUIDELINES

PURPOSE

The guidelines provide concise standards, style directions and maintenance procedures for University Library staff who design, author and maintain University Library web pages.

LOCATION OF THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY WEB PAGES

The University of Illinois at Chicago University Library web pages will be located at http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/.

DESIGN OF THE LIBRARY'S TOP LEVEL WEB PAGE

  • The top level web page should have 6-8 categories representing the most important information about the library, its collections, and services.
  • Other most frequently used pages should be accessible within no more than 2-3 intervening screens.
  • Links to external sites support the purpose of the Library's pages.
  • The top level web page includes a date for last revision/update next to the link for "News/What's New".
  • The design goal is to create a compact, non-scrolling screen.

STANDARD DESIGN ELEMENTS FOR LIBRARY WEB SITE PAGES

A. Values and Principles Underlying the Design of All University Library Web Pages

  1. Users are important; the University Library's digital space should be organized from a User's perspective.
  2. Jargon is counterproductive.
  3. Phrases and icons should be meaningful to users.
  4. Web pages related to the University Library's digital space should have similar appearances.
  5. Instructional materials constructed and offered by the library faculty should be part of the University Library's digital space; web-based instructional materials should be in the library's web directories and not in personal directories.
  6. Library web pages should be ADA compliant. Extensive information about the content of ADA compliant pages is at the World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessability Initiative site at http://www.w3.org/WAI/ -- a list of checkpoints is at

    7. http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/checkpoint-list.html

B. Design of Second and Third Level Pages (the two layers underneath the top level page)

  1. Each page shall have a header stating "UNIVERSITY LIBRARY" and a button linking to the UIC institutional web page.
  2. A graphical navigation bar will be included underneath the header. All major categories listed on the Library's top level page will be represented in this bar. One button in this bar shall be colored differently to let the user know which section of the web pages they are currently using. No editing of the navigation bar is allowed.
  3. A text navigation bar will be at the bottom of the page, repeating the words of the graphical bar categories. No editing of the navigation bar is allowed.
  4. Contact information for Library Administration shall be listed underneath the text navigation bar, regardless of the location of the individual library site.
  5. All pages must include a link to lib-sugg@uic.edu and a last revision date. These are included in the common elements.
  6. All second and third level pages shall be white, with black text. No background graphics or variant colors will be allowed.
  7. All common graphical elements shall be maintained in a common images directory.
  8. Templates for common elements will be provided.
  9. As part of the TITLE element, and the visible title of the page, all Library web pages MUST contain the name of the department responsible for the content.

C. Fourth and Lower Level pages

  1. Each page shall have a header stating "UNIVERSITY LIBRARY" and a button linking to the UIC institutional web page.

  2. A graphical navigation bar will be included underneath the header, including links to the University Library's top level web page and the UICCAT library catalog page.
  3. No editing of the navigation bar is allowed.

  4. A text navigation bar will be at the bottom of the page, repeating the words of the graphical bar categories. No editing of the navigation bar is allowed.

  5. Contact information for Library Administration shall be listed underneath the text navigation bar, regardless of the location of the individual library site.

  6. All pages must include a link to lib-sugg@uic.edu and the last revision date. These are included in the common elements.

  7. Templates for common elements will be provided.

  8. As part of the TITLE element, and the visible title/name of the page, all Library web pages MUST contain the name of the department responsible for the content.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP

  1. All pages shall have a designation of ownership/author as part of the metadata information in the HTML code. The "Author" is the individual creating the HTML content; the "Publisher" is the department responsible for the content.
  2. Underneath the date of creation/revision, all UIC Library web pages shall include the URL for that page.
  3. All proposed web pages must be reviewed and approved by the Electronic Resources Quadrant.

USE OF MULTIMEDIA AND PROGRAMMING ELEMENTS

  1. Icons, animated gifs, and scrolling text should be used sparingly, if at all.
  2. Tables should be used sparingly, as they cannot always be properly read by the software available for use by disabled individuals.
  3. Java, Javascript, and Java applets should be used sparingly and only under the advisement and coordination of the Electronic Resources Quadrant in cooperation with Library Systems.
  4. Use of multimedia elements should not interfere with web page accessability. Library web pages should be ADA compliant. (See Technical Appendix.)

 

TECHNICAL APPENDIX

 

FILE CONVENTIONS AND OTHER MAINTENANCE ELEMENTS

  1. Files must follow standard naming conventions. All file names MUST be lower-case, without spaces, and must end in the extension ".shtml" (without quotation marks). Files ending in .htm or .html are not allowed because they will not be read or interpreted properly by the server.
  2. Files must be in ASCII/Text format, and may not contain word processor formatting or control characters.
  3. Images with information content should have meaningful ALT tags, so that they can be understood when viewed with nongraphical browsers.
  4. Web pages should be written in HTML 3.2, and not HTML 4.0 and higher.

HOW TO MAKE A WEB PAGE:

1. Software.

The following software may be used to make library web pages: any word processor as long as the file is save as text or HTML, any text editor (notepad, simpletext, BBEdit), or graphical Web editing software available through the usual software request channels -- department heads must approve requests. Graphical web editors are available in the Arcades for casual users, those who do frequent work may wish to acquire a graphical package for their our computer.

Recommended editors for Windows include DreamWeaver, Homesite, and HotDog; for Mac, BBEdit and Dreamweaver. Claris HomePage for PC and Mac may be used; however, it has extreme difficulty with .SHTML page extensions. In general, the library will not buy high end editors. The above listed editors will be available in the Arcades.

Do not use Netscape Composer or Microsoft FrontPage to edit your web pages. These editors produce unreliable results.

2. Templates:

a. You MUST use an FTP client, such as WS-FTP for Windows or Fetch for the Macintosh, to download templates to your hard disk to work on. If you try to download templates by viewing and saving with a web browser, they will be incorrectly formatted and contain incorrect URLs.

b. The basic templates for library webpages are available at:

server: tigger.cc.uic.edu

directory: /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/depts/lib/staff/templates/

Point your FTP client to this directory and download the appropriate template(s) for your use.

Two different templates exist for general use. For staff pages--pages not intended to be seen by the public--use stafftemplate.shtml. For pages on the rest of the library site, use twobuttontemplate.shtml.

Several five-button templates do exist; use of these is restricted by ERQ, and they may be used only if and as ERQ directs.

3. Make a new page:

a. open appropriate template in html editor of choice

b. add your data in the place marked <insert information here>. Note that this includes the META NAME tags at the top of the web page code, where you insert

Author: your name

Publisher: your department

Title: the name of your page - you MUST keep the UIC University Library inside the tag information

Date: the date you post the page to the web site

c. save the file

d. Preview your file by looking at in in Netscape Navigator.

e. Make corrections as needed.

f. Save the file again.

g. Open an FTP connection using an FTP client such as WS-FTP for Windows or Fetch for Macintosh (supplied with the appropriate Network Services Kit) to

server: tigger.cc.uic.edu

directory: /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/depts/lib/your department's directory name (for example, admin or acq or systems, etc.)

and upload your file into the directory.

h. Review your page using the following sites/tools:

Checking your HTML writing and syntax:

HTML Check by Netmechanic: http://www.netmechanic.com/html_check.htm -- checks your HTML tags and syntax. Make certain that you set the Extensions option to HTML 3.2 Standard. This service produces the easiest output to understand.

Dr Watson: http://watson.addy.com/ -- this site checks both your HTML and your links, as long as you have fewer than 100 links on your page.

Checking only your web page links:

Link Check by Netmechanic: http://www.netmechanic.com/link_check.htm. can be run either as a foreground job, checking your links immediately, or a background job, which will mail the results to your email address.

Linklint: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/adn/linklint.pl - this will check for valid links in your page, and is more useful if you have more than 100 links in your page. (Ideally, you shouldn't.)

Checking your web page for accessability/A.D.A. Compliance:

Web Content Accessability Guidelines:

http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/wai-pageauth.html

Guidelines on how to write accessable pages. We recommend that you use these pages during the writing process, rather than having the pages validated by BOBBY.

Bobby: http://www.cast.org/bobby/ -- Note that BOBBY produces many errors due to the way that our web pages are assembled; these errors prevent the web pages being given a BOBBY Priority 1 seal of approval.

i. Log on to Tigger with a telnet client and type the following commands:

  1. cd /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/depts/lib/your department's directory name (for example, admin or acq or systems, etc.)

  2. chmod a+rx filename.html

    OR chmod a+rx * if you upload more than one file at a time--you MUST type the asterisk.

  3. chmod g+rwx filename.html

    (Note the additional W)

    OR chmod g+rwx * if you upload more than one file at a time--you MUST type the asterisk.

REVIEW OF PAGES

  1. Staff member creates or does major overhaul of a page; the department head and/or cross-departmental committee responsible for the page then review and approve the content.

  2. After following procedures for checking/verifying page HTML syntax and links contained in the Guidelines for the University Library Web Pages, Technical appendix (see above), the staff member uploads the web page to the web server using an FTP client such as WS-FTP for Windows or Fetch for Macintosh (supplied with the appropriate Network Services Kit). You may create subdirectories in the temp, archives, services and resources directories as appropriate; you may NOT create subdirectories in your main departmental directory.
    NOTE: Do NOT make any links to this page at the current time!

  3. Once the page has been uploaded, the person who uploaded the files MUST send an email to lib-sys@uic.edu, letting Systems know exactly where the file has been placed and what its current URL is.

  4. lib-sys@uic.edu reviews page for conformance to guidelines, mark-up errors, sizing of images, etc.

  5. After any corrections are made, lib-sys@uic.edu notifies erq@uic.edu that a page needs to be reviewed for content

  6. erq@uic.edu works with staff member and/or department head/committee and/or lib-sys@uic.edu until the page is correct (as needed).

  7. Staff member then makes all appropriate links to that page within the department/committee's page; if the page should be linked to a page under exclusive ERQ control (Electronic Resources, Electronic Journals, Circulation main page, and other pages as notified), staff member/committee must request that the link be made to those pages.
  8. staff member maintains page within these guidelines.

  9. Systems will run Linkbot or an equivalent program/process on the whole website at regular intervals, to determine bad links, old pages, and other problems.

Last updated: Wednesday, 19-Dec-2001 17:41:41 CST
URL: http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/staff/commwork/guideline.shtml

STAFF PAGES
University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago
 801 S. Morgan, M/C 234 Chicago, Illinois 60607 USA Administration: 312-996-2716