[WEB4LIB] Fw: Re: Government Web Site Taking Paid Ads?

[Dan Lester]

At 06:59 AM 6/11/99 -0700, Shirl Kennedy wrote:

>Interesting topic surfaces on the GOVPUB mailing list.  Have any of y'all
>confronted this issue re: paid ads on your (public sector) library Web
>pages?  Various city officials make this "suggestion" to me from time to
>time.  So far, I've managed to fend them off with a variety of common
>sense-type arguments:

This isn't just a public library issue.  I'm a member of the campus 
Computer Governance Committee (which determines all policies....or at least 
the admin and the board have accepted them all so far) and we're wrestling 
with this now.

Some of the things include:

1. The university site at www.boisestate.edu and the library site at 
http://library.boisestate.edu have no ads.
2. The university athletics site is off campus and has 
ads:  www.broncosports.com  I don't know whether the money for it comes 
from appropriated dollars or booster dollars or what.  Not being an 
auditor, I don't much care.
3. The university bookstore is considering/planning going off campus to a 
commercial vendor to handle their ecommerce.  They apparently think this is 
better than developing this service on campus; it may well be.
4. Some departments have wanted to put links to commercial vendors on their 
web pages.  What if such a link is to connect their students to a source 
for a required book or other instructional material?  What if it is to a 
company that has donated equipment to them (sort of an electronic thank 
you)?  What if the link is a condition of a significant donation?
5. The answer to this may vary with location, but are we legally or morally 
obligated to provide links to the campus bookstore instead of local 
bookstores?  Or to local bookstores instead of amazon.com?
6. What is the boundary between providing a service and hosting 
advertising?  If I provide links to SilverPlatter databases, is that 
advertising?  What if I also provide a link to the SilverPlatter home 
page?  Is it advertising if it isn't paid (fee or commission) 
advertising?  7. What about "indirect advertising"?  If I link to Yahoo!, 
I'm supporting them and their advertisers?

Those are just a few of the questions we tossed around the other day, and 
I'm sure you can add some of your own.

I'll be interested to hear what is happening elsewhere, and why and how.

dan






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Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716 USA 208-383-0165
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