Unauthorized Web pages

[JoAnne C. Lingenfelter]

Pamela Brown wrote:
> 
> Does anyone have experience with someone setting up Web pages without
> authorization?  One of our member libraries wants to know if there is
> anything they can do when a local private business sets up a home page
> for them without the library's approval.  It puts the library in an
> awkward position, and the information is not wholly accurate.  Short of
> legal action, does anyone have suggestions to offer?

We had that problem.  Someone hoping to get a contract from us set up a
demo on their site and left it there.  I was finding links to it all
over the place.  Once we got our site up I contacted the webmasters at
some of the heaviest used sites and asked them to please change their
links to the new site.  Most had it done within minutes after receiving
my message.  It took a few phone calls but we got the "unofficial" site
down.
I was lucky that the company was so agreeable.  Being a government
agency and the open records act etc., we would have been hard pressed to
do very much.  They had lifted some graphics from our brochures that we
could have pursued.

Does your member library plan on doing a web page?  If so,could they put
the word "official" somewhere prominent? Check to see where their page
is listed.  There may be a way to get their listing changed to note that
it is not the official site.

JoAnne