Access
Overview | Guidelines | Support
| Web Site Management
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)
- "Edit" whatever page you're working on
- Highlight the text you want to link
- Click on the "Link" icon in the top navigation bar
- From the drop down menu select "Browse to Web Page..."
- An "Insert Link" dialog box opens
- Click on the "Browse" button in this dialog box
- A "Browse to Link" window opens
- Click on the "Choose" button
- A "Choose File on Website" dialog box opens
- Using the "Look in" feature, click on the directory of interest,
click "OK"
- Scroll to the index (or ejournal) you're looking for
- Right click on the title of the index (or ejournal)
- Click on "Copy Shortcut", click "OK"
- 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.
