[WEB4LIB] Re: Staff homepages

[Mark Stover]

It is interesting to compare public libraries and their policies on staff
Web pages with academic libraries.  Academic institutions, even if they are
government funded, tend to allow wide latitude in staff/faculty/student Web
pages (although certainly policies are usually in place that contain some
restrictions).  One example is the matter of "personal business."  Given
the long history in academe that allows and even encourages private
consulting practices by faculty (and some professional staff), I suspect
that most colleges and universities would allow "business" Web pages if
these pages were simply extensions of the faculty member's consulting
practice (which is itself an extension of the faculty member's research and
teaching responsibilities).  Consulting by faculty tends to be viewed as
"service" to the community, and as such is an honorable (if not lucrative)
way for the faculty member to spend a certain portion of their time.
Public libraries, on the other hand, generally view this kind of activity
as taboo, similar to most other governmental agencies.

Again, even though both of these entities might be funded by the
government, their policies are quite different because they are two very
different cultures.

Mark Stover

At 12:38 PM 8/20/98 -0700, dAVe burlingame wrote:
>On Thu, 20 Aug 1998, Peter Konshak wrote:
>
>}Are there any public libraries out there doing this?  What sorts of
>}policies do you have?  What kind of content do you allow?  Are there legal
>}disclaimers (for example, "the library is not responsible for this
>}content..")?  I'm interested in any feedback anyone might have!  Thanks,
>
>I think the reason Seattle Public Library does not allow personal pages,
>on either its public pages or intranet, simply has to do with taxpayer
>monies funding personal pages, opinions, or views. How could we, as a
>public-funded entity, give our own staff webspace, and not offer space to
>members of the public for individuals' own pages?
>
>If staff wants personal web space, they're advised to go to tripod.com, or
>any other of the myriad services that DO offer free webspace.
>
>Keep in mind I'm not espousing any policy ver batim, just taking a stab at
>potential SPL reasoning. I may very well be wrong.
>
>dAVe
>