Guidelines for linking to other Web sites

[Martin Cohen]

Margaret Riley gave a good answer to the question. I can second what she 
said, based on our policies. We view Web sites very much like regular 
collections. Sites are chosen by librarian subject selectors (the same 
librarians who choose books and periodicals). In general, we do not link 
to a site based on a solicitation from the site. I as Webmaster 
frequently receive these solicitations. Generally I ignore them. 
Occasionally they do call attention to valuable new sites, or ones we had 
not discovered. We link to sites based on the overall quality of 
information, and especially their relevance to the curriculum of the 
College. Some of these are commercial sites. But those are ones that 
present high quality, highly relevant information or services (e.g. 
AltaVista or Yahoo) which outweigh the distractions of the advertising 
also present on the site.

Martin J. Cohen                                 mcohen at stmarys-ca.edu
Media Services and Library Systems              voice: (510) 631-4229
Saint Mary's College of California              fax:   (510) 376-6097
Moraga, CA 94575                                ars longa vita brevis