Lake Superior College World Wide Web Publishing Guidelines
Lake Superior College (LSC) recognizes the Internet as a valuable tool in promoting the college and communicating with the public, students and staff and therefore allows and encourages staff and faculty to publish electronic information. To assist in creating Web pages and to ensure that these pages reflect positively on LSC, these Web publishing guidelines have been adopted by the Web Advisory Board. The LSC Webmaster reserves the right to remove pages that are no longer being maintained or that violate these guidelines.
LSC utilizes W3C suggestions as a guideline resource. Web Content Accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Checklist. LSC Fonts, Colors, & Sizes.
Types of Information (Web Pages)
LSC identifies two types of information for electronic publishing purposes:
Official information refers to that which directly affects the mission of LSC. This includes (but is not limited to)
- Academic Calendar;
- Admissions;
- Catalogs;
- Class Schedule;
- Degree and Program Information - includes planners, course descriptions and requirements;
- Financial Aid and Scholarships;
- Policies;
- etc.
Official pages must contain:
- LSC Logo;
- LSC Address/Phone Number - either written or use address image;
- Department Name;
- Link to LSC home page- text link or image link;
- Date of last revision;
- Equal opportunity statement (Lake Superior College is an equal opportunity educator and employer.);
- Name and email address of contact for more information;
Official pages should contain:
How to Create an Official Page
- Official pages created outside of the Public Information Department must be approved by the appropriate Dean or Vice President and the Public Information Department.
General Information refers to those pages that contain scholarly information that is related to the mission of LSC but does not impact the governance of the college. These include:
- Faculty/Staff Home Pages
- LSC Club/Organization Pages
General Information pages must contain:
- This disclaimer "The views and opinions expressed in this Web page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved of by Lake Superior College."
- Link back to LSC Home Page
- Date of last Revision
How to Create General Information Pages
- Pages must be examined prior to publishing by the Public Information Department to.
- insure compliance with all policies;
- insure readability;
- insure any technologies used (flash, javascript etc.) functions properly
Graphics
- Small in size and number;
- Must be in recognizable format: gif, jpeg. This will ensure that all (graphical) browsers will be able to display the image properly;
- Clipart is definitely not recommended;
- Photos of an individual must not be included without the written permission of the individual (on file with Department of Public Information);
- Limit number of animated gifs;
- Tasteful backgrounds;
- Don't use copyrighted graphics without permission from owner.
Overall Look
- Don't use some "far-out" font for main text. OK for headings etc. but by using the following "safe" fonts, your viewers will have a better chance of actually having that font on their computer and thus, will see the page as it was intended;
- Common PC fonts: Verdana*, Arial, Courier New, Times New Romano
- Common Macintosh fonts: Helvetica, Courier, Palatino, Times, Verdana*, Arial*
- *These fonts are usually available to users who install Internet Explorer 4.0.
- Use dark text on a light background.
- Remember, pages may look very different in different browsers. You should make every effort to test your pages in multiple browsers. Pages may look slightly different, but need to keep the functionality. Graphics should be clear in all browsers.
- Don't use blinking text or marquees.
- Page should be neat and uncluttered.
General
- Links
- Explain your links. Don't use "Click here for more information".
- Check your links frequently, broken links reflect badly on the college.
- Provide email link to author of page. When doing this don't use "Email me" instead use your entire email address, j.doe@lsc.edu.
- Accessibility
- Make pages accessible to persons with disabilities
- Links to Web Accessibility Pages
- Web Accessibility Checkers
- Academic Information (planners, course descriptions etc.) must be routed through single source to ensure accuracy.
- Design help is available through the LSC webmaster.
- All LSC Web pages must be consistent with LSC policies and guidelines as well as local, state and federal laws.
- Pages that are "no longer maintained" are those that have not been updated at least once every six months.
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