Web Page Publishing Guidelines

I. Rationale

The World Wide Web (WWW) allows the University of Louisville to promote its activities and educational opportunities to an international audience including prospective students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends of the university and others, and to enhance research, scholarship and instruction both within the university and the wider community.

As with all external communications, U of L's presence on the web should promote a positive image of the university to other universities, accrediting agencies, funding agencies, the media, prospective students, their families, and the public.

The following guidelines have been developed to help present a consistent, high-quality identity for the university. All departments and individuals, providing information through U of L's web sites, are expected to conform with these guidelines.

II. Structure

The University of Louisville Home Page is the university's "front door" for WWW users. Currently, the page offers users a chance to view information under these broad categories:

• Introduction to U of L
• University News and Information
• Information for Prospective Students & Current Students
• Academic Programs, Academic Services and Libraries
• Administrative Services
• Information Technology and Internet Resources²

All other web pages are included (or linked) under the current broad topics as listed on the Home Page. For instance, the university's Calendar of Events is listed under University News and Information, and academic departmental home pages are listed under Academic Programs and Services. The first level (or home page level) may be reorganized from time to time to reflect changes in focus, emphasis, or interest.

Today many of the pages linked from the U of L Home Page are maintained by the offices of University Relations or Information Technology. Other pages are maintained by appropriate units within the university. The university web pages also feature "individual pages," which are maintained by individuals.

III. The Home Page Level

The Home Page level designates UofL's home page and those pages³ linked directly from UofL's home page (with the exception of "individual pages"). In addition, other pages linked to these pages may be designated as "home page level" (e.g., pages, which for design or size reasons could not be accommodated directly from the Home Page; "entry point" pages). Generally pages at this Home Page level are designed for university-wide or external audiences. As the university's "front door" these pages are subject to university policies for external communications, graphic identity and public information. The office of University Relations is responsible for overseeing these policies. Since anything at this Home Page level is deemed "official" university information, it is subject to review and approval of University Relations for conformance with the appropriate university policies.

IV. University Pages

University pages are those pages which are not designated as "home page level" nor are "individual pages." These pages may serve a variety of purposes or serve a variety of audiences within the scope of the University's instructional, research and public service mission. These pages usually will be categorized into one of three types: Unit/Departmental/Group pages, Project/Special Interest pages, or Instructional/Research pages.

Page authors/owners should be aware that their pages can be viewed by many different audiences (the intended audience and others). An individual (or group of individuals) or department will be assigned responsibility for each such page. This individual, group, or department would be responsible for (1) its content, (2) compliance with University policy, state and federal law, and appropriate licensing agreements relating to intellectual property, and (3) its maintenance (e.g., accuracy, currency). The person(s) and/or department head will be expected to signify acceptance of or compliance with these provisions and computer account agreement prior to such pages being posted or linked to the Home Page level.

If these pages contain links to non UofL pages, the person(s) or department assigned responsibility for these pages may wish to include an appropriate disclaimer adjacent to such link or prior to any transfer to that page.

A. Unit, Departmental, or Group Pages

Unit, departmental, or group pages are pages produced and maintained by specific departments, schools and units or officially sanctioned groups. These pages are usually devoted to items of interest to that unit, department, or group's specific audiences.

The initial entry page and each subsequent page that introduce a section should contain the university's monogram in either red or black at the top as part of the banner and are expected to conform to the university's graphic identity standards.

Any information prepared by schools, colleges, divisions and units which is deemed "official" university information is subject to approval by appropriate deans, vice presidents and unit heads.

Templates will be made available on the web by University Publications to help departments/units in constructing their pages.

B. Project/Special Interest Pages

Project or special interest pages are pages produced by an individual, department/unit, or group relating to a specific project or event or focusing on a topic of special or specific interest. These might include materials relating to conferences, symposiums, courses, or grants/activities sponsored by the University. They could also include pages providing services such as searches of university pages (e.g., employee or student directory information) or web based university support applications (e.g., admission applications.)

C. Instructional/Research Pages

Instructional or research pages are pages produced by individuals, departments/units, or groups in support of instruction or research. These might include course materials, class assignments or projects, research grants or projects relating to current or planned research.

Authors are reminded that these pages should be appropriate reflections of the University's instructional and research mission.

V. Individual Pages

Any faculty, staff or student with a university computer account may create web pages to be included on the university's web site under the section designated for individual pages. The entry point for these pages is called the individual's home page. (These pages are frequently referred to as "personal pages" on the web.)

Individual pages are intended for university-related and professional purposes and are expected to conform with university policies governing appropriate use of resources. For example, use of individual pages for illegal, commercial, or solely personal purposes is prohibited. Individuals are expected to comply with relevant University policies, state and federal law, and any relevant licensing agreements relating to intellectual property.⁴

Individual pages on the U of L web site are the responsibility of the person to whom the account is assigned. Therefore, the pages are not subject to university policies for external communication, graphic identity and public information.

The individual's home page (entry point) and any other pages used or designed as an alternate entry point should carry the following disclaimer at the bottom of each page:

"The University of Louisville is not responsible for the contents of this [these] individual page[s]; comments on this [these] individual page [s] should be directed to [the page author ⁵]."

VI. Reservation of Rights

The University reserves the right to disable and/or remove, after appropriate warning and review, the web page links and publishing capability on university managed servers (or Internet accessibility to such by University supplied network components) of anyone who uses the Internet to violate University policy, to conduct or promote activities which are illegal or violate University contractual obligations, including but not limited to criminal acts or intellectual property (e.g., copyright) violations, to make accessible materials that are obscene or that damage the reputation or good will of the University or consume (or result in the consumption of) excessive amounts of computing or network resources. The University reserves the right to impose charges for use of computing or network resources.

1. Approved at the President's Cabinet on Tuesday, February 27, 1996.

2. Proposed Structure

• Introduction to U of L
• University News and Information
• Information for Prospective Students & Current Students
• Academic Programs, Academic Services, Libraries
• University Support Services (including Administrative Services, Information Technology, Copy Centers, Bookstore, etc.)
• Research and Creative Activity Centers (including Institutes, Libraries, Computer Centers, Research Foundations, etc.)
• Athletics
• The University Community (individual pages)

3. Whenever the term page is used, it may refer to a single page or a group of pages which are related or linked together.

4. Individual page authors, as computer account holders, must signify acceptance of an account agreement with Information Technology before posting their home page is possible.

5. Normally this would be implemented by using the name and e-mail address with the "mail to" option.