ALIA publishing and editorial reference group

Web publishing policy

Scope of recommendations

This document forms part of ALIA's Information and Communications Technology Strategy, effecting the marketing of the Association to the wider community, and encapsulates both the objects and the areas of strategic focus. The policy applies to all web-based content delivered through ALIAnet.

Purpose of website

The ALIA website facilitates communication and collaboration between members of ALIA and the wider community, at a member-to-member level, as an organisation to the wider library and information sector, and to the world at large.

Information content

All published material available through the ALIA website shall be governed by ALIA's policies on publishing, and should not violate any policy, regulation or law in relation to publishing content. Beyond this, content must also remain appropriate, relevant, current, and of high quality in both content and information structure. Content should not promote illegal activities, infringe copyright, or bring the Association into disrepute.

Commercial activities

The ALIA events and conference pages (and groups newsletters pages) are permitted to promote external commercial activities through their web pages, either by discrete banner advertising or through text links, logos and other images - within the bounds of the restrictions - technical and otherwise - implied elsewhere within this document. Sponsorship and advertising of affiliated organisations, when specifically sanctioned by the ALIA executive director, is permitted to be placed discretely elsewhere within the website. No other form of promotion of external commercial activities is permitted.

Security and privacy

The Association adheres to the information privacy principles within the Federal Privacy Act as they relate to private sector business. In order to allow site visitors to contact office-bearers, names, telephone numbers, postal addresses and e-mail addresses of ALIA office-bearers and contacts are permitted to be displayed on the ALIA website. Individual office-bearer postal information may be suppressed upon request. All displayed e-mail addresses (office-bearers or otherwise) are rendered to prevent harvesting of this information by internet-based spam robots.

Technical standards

In the interests of making information accessible to all, the ALIA website conforms to W3C guidelines on accessibility and html validity. Where possible, all content must be viewable html-encoded material, and not in a proprietary format (such as pdf or Microsoft Word). Each page must contain suitable metadata, declare the date of the last update of the page, declare the URL that is being viewed, and be suitable for both printing and viewing. Each page must have suitable navigational elements to permit ease of use and to encourage an understanding of the overall site structure and hierarchy. The search engine will permit reasonable searches of content, and deliver informative choices in response to queries. All internal links will be maintained, and external links reviewed as often as practical. Each page must also adhere to the technical notes found at http://alia.org.au/alianet/technical.notes.html.

Free access

Services that encourage membership and promote the value of membership will be made available to all, but not so as to undermine the value of being a member of the Association. Material that advocates on behalf of the Association, events and conference details, and registrations - where events are open to the wider public - are open to all.

Members-only access

Material deemed suitable for members-only, or material identified as requiring ALIA membership in order to access it, will be placed on the members-only website, with password-restricted access. Unique member password access is required to gain entry to individual membership details. All financial and personal transactions with the membership database require unique member password access. Members may continue to access members-only material whilst they remain financial members of the Association, until such time as their membership lapses. Institutional members may designate up to three members of staff who may be granted access to members-only material.

Differentiation between 'free' and 'members-only' access

If an activity that takes place requires membership of ALIA, then all related content on the website must reflect the exclusivity of this activity. ALIA group activities are members-only activities (and warrant placement in the members-only section of the website), except in the case of conferences and other events that permit public access. Members-only content and information must be linked to 'free-for-all' information in a way that encourages membership of the Association, in the form of sweeteners, incentives and snippets of information. Services that require considerable financial input by members will require justification to be placed outside the members-only area of the website. Consideration of overall site navigation and other technical aspects must be taken into account.

Duties and obligations

The 'owner' of each page is responsible for content generation, accuracy, currency, and maintenance. The owner is listed in the metadata, and shall be an office-bearer of the Association at all times. The 'editor' (in this context) is the person responsible for all aspects of html markup, will ensure that the content conforms to ALIA 'house style', and will ensure that the page is made available on the ALIAnet server. The editor will be responsible for the establishment and maintenance of links to and from the page. The editor will always be a member of ALIA National Office staff. The owner will liaise with the editor over display of both content and overall placement of the page. Copyright is vested in the Association, unless declared otherwise by the author.

Authority

Whereas individual authors of pages are responsible for content, disputes arising from content (or placement of content) shall be referred to the ALIA manager, communications, systems and publishing, who has overall responsibility for site management. If the dispute cannot be resolved at this level to the satisfaction of the parties affected, it may then be referred to the ALIA Publishing and Editorial Reference Group, which shall then determine a suitable resolution.

Archiving

The ALIA website will ensure that archival material is kept in perpetuity, and in a non-proprietary and accessible format.

Disclaimers

All ALIA website pages must have appropriate disclaimers, referencing copyright, date of update, feedback, update mechanism, and other footer material as declared elsewhere in this recommendation.

Effective date

These recommendations will come into effect immediately upon being approved by the ALIA Board of Directors.

Review

It is anticipated that this recommendation will be reviewed annually.