Access Overview | Guidelines | Support | Web Site Management

Library Web Site - Guidelines

Guidelines for All Library Web Site Authors

Guidelines Specific for Web Committee Members

Guidelines Specific for Instruction

Guidelines for all Library Web Site Authors

Note:

The Library's web site is based on templates and was developed using Dreamweaver. Content has been separated from design. The design is controlled by templates, library items, and style sheets. These are terms used in Macromedia's products, e.g., Dreamweaver, Contribute, and Fireworks.

Authorship, signatures

The only pages on the web site which will give a specific staff member's name in the signature will be Research Guides. This information is given as contact information, not as "credit" information. Therefore, the name given is for the current bibliographer or reference librarian for the subject area. It is not necessarily the name of the person who authored the page or maintains the page.

Back-ups

Authors should keep up-to-date, back-up copies of their files. Files and directories can be inadvertently deleted. One way to restore deleted files is by asking authors to upload files.

Filenames, Pathnames

filename: training.html

  • Use only lowercase
  • Must use .html extension, not .htm

pathname or url or web address:

example: http://www.bu.edu/library/management/serial.html

  • http - protocol
  • www.bu.edu - server
  • library - top level directory or folder
  • management - sub-directory or sub-folder
  • serial.html - filename and extension

Fonts

All font choices are stipulated site-wide in style sheets.

Formatting

Formatting or page layout should be done with headers and paragraph tags. Use of blockquotes is discouraged for formatting. Tables and lists may be used for organizing content, but should not be used for layout. Use of color and font tags is strongly discouraged. All sizing should be done via headings.

FTP

All file transfers to Library web site must be done via the file transfer programs built into Contribute and Dreamweaver. No other FTP programs may be used to move files to the Library web site without explicit permission from the web site administrator each time files need to be moved. No one has prior permission to do this. Site management tools within Dreamweaver are compromised by the use of other FTP programs.

Images

  • All images will be kept in /images/ directories. These /images/ directories may be found in various directories on the site including the top directory.
  • The images created by Ron Yeany will be kept in /library/graphics/. No one but the Web Site Administrator should add files to this directory.
  • Due to file size concerns, please use .gif or .jpg images whenever possible. Please do not use .png-- convert these to .gif or .jpg images. Other image formats may be used with approval of a Web Committee member.
  • No images will be allowed to be more than 1 megabyte in size unless previously approved by the Web Site Administrator.
  • All movie files should be stored in /library/movies

Links

When creating links from one web page to another within the Library's site use relative links. Contribute and Dreamweaver will create relative links correctly within the Library's site. All other links to pages within the BU site or to pages on servers outside the BU domain should be absolute links. There should not be any links on the site which begin with a forward slash(/). These are server-relative links and are interpreted as broken links by Dreamweaver. No links should be written out on any web pages, unless the author has created a print version of a web page.

Linking to Indexes or Databases (same procedure for ejournals)
  1. "Edit" whatever page you're working on
  2. Highlight the text you want to link
  3. Click on the "Link" icon in the top navigation bar
  4. From the drop down menu select "Browse to Web Page..."
  5. An "Insert Link" dialog box opens
  6. Click on the "Browse" button in this dialog box
  7. A "Browse to Link" window opens
  8. Click on the "Choose" button
  9. A "Choose File on Website" dialog box opens
  10. Using the "Look in" feature, click on the directory of interest, click "OK"
  11. Scroll to the index (or ejournal) you're looking for
  12. Right click on the title of the index (or ejournal)
  13. Click on "Copy Shortcut", click "OK"
  14. Click in the web address, delete any url, then right click and paste, click "OK"

Maintenance

All staff are expected to maintain whatever web pages they create in a timely fashion. If you work out an arrangement with your supervisor or a Web Committee member that someone else will maintain the web pages you created please let the Web Site Administrator know.

Also, please check the broken links report which comes out monthly for all BU web sites. We have asked for it to be organized alphabetically by directory name. The most recent report is located at: http://www.bu.edu/reports/library/.

Please delete any of your pages that are out-of-date. The Web Site Administer reserves the right to remove links to out-of-date web pages and to delete web pages.

New files, new pages

New pages may be created from templates or by copying existing pages and then deleting the old content and adding in the new content.

  • All titles of pages start with "BU Libraries |...".
    • This first portion of the title, BU Libraries, must start every title on the web site
    • Concepts are separated by pipes (|)
    • All significant words in page title should be capitalized.
    • Keep the title short. Search engines only look at the first 50-70 characters
    • For Research Guides, the page title should read "BU Libraries | Research Guides | [Guide Title]"
  • All directory and file names must be entirely in lower case. All html files should have the extension.html, not .htm.
  • All new web pages must be reviewed by two colleagues before being uploaded to the web site. Please ask reviewers to pay attention to content, spelling, grammar, and links.

Templates, library items

Every html file on the Library site is template-based, except the top page.

All new templates, library items and styles must be approved by the Library's Web Committee. Please contact your support person on the Web Committee with any questions.

Training & support

All staff are expected to take appropriate training offered by Networked Information Services (NIS) before creating or editing web pages for the site. It is the staff member's responsibility to sign up for these classes. If a class is full, sign up for the waiting list. NIS typically adds new sections when wait lists appear.

The Web Committee will offer support to all Contributors. Each Contributor has been assigned a Web Committee member for support. More difficult questions may be referred to the Web Site Administrator who will ask NIS staff for advice. Please be considerate when asking Web Committee members for assistance.

Web editing software

The only editors that are to be used are Contribute and Dreamweaver.

Guidelines Specific for Web Committee Members

Behaviors, graphics, scripts

When ever possible please use the functionality built into Dreamweaver and Fireworks when creating or editing behaviors, graphics or adding scripts to any files. If you are unable to find the functionality you need within these tools, please ask the Web Site Administrator to check with NIS staff to see what is possible.

Check-in/check-out

All Dreamweaver users must enable check-in and check-out. It is essential for compatibility
with Contribute. It also allows all of us to know who has files checked out.

When editing a web page please "check-out" the web page. When you are finished please "check-in" the web page. This will prevent two staff members from working on a web page at the same time. It will also alert the Web Committee that web pages are checked out should global updates or changes be needed.

Line breaks

Please set Dreamweaver preferences to use Windows line breaks. To do so, go to:
1) Dreamweaver, Edit pull-down menu
2) Preferences (last item on menu)
3) Under "Category" in left column highlight "Code Format"
4) On right side of the dialogue box is a pull down menu for Line Break Type. This should be set to CR LF Windows.

Synchronizing

Please synchronize the entire web site each time you open Dreamweaver. If you open and close Dreamweaver more than once a day, it is sufficient to only synchronize it the first time you open it on any day. This will ensure that you are working with an up-to-date copy of the remote site. During synchronization, when you are "getting" new or updated files from the remote site, please check off "delete local files not on remote", before you hit "preview". Then, when the list is displayed, the files earmarked for deletion will appear first. You may then uncheck those files you do not wish to delete. When putting files from your local hard drive to the remote server, NEVER check off the box asking if you want "delete remote files not on local drive".

Tags

For style sheets to work correctly, all text must be enclosed within tags, such as paragraph, list, and table tags.

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