Commerical advertising on Library Web sites (was Re: Banner Pages for Promoting Library Resources an)

[Brian Kelly]

There is much interest in the UK Higher Education in advertising on Web
sites.  Currently the JANET (the network used by the Higher Education
community) Acceptable Use Policy bans unsolicited advertising:

9. JANET may not be used for any of the following:
...
  9.5. the transmission of unsolicited commercial or advertising
material either to other User Organisations, or to organisations
connected to other networks, save where that material is embedded
within, or is otherwise part of, a service to which the member of the
User Organisation has chosen to subscribe;

See <http://www.ja.net/documents/use.html>

There is much debate over the interpretation of this policy and whether
income generation from advertising revenue is a good thing (it can help
pay for your employees to develop better services) or a bad thing (we
want to continue with a BBC model, and not dumb down to the level of
commercial TV stations.

What's the position in the US?  Is commercial advertising banned,
accepted, encouraged? If you do provide advertising, do you manage
adverts yourselves (within your organisation), make use of services to
negotiate for your community, or simple go with DoubleClick?  Do you
generate sufficient income to make it worth your while, or is it more
trouble than its worth?

Thanks

Brian Kelly


--------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus
UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, England, BA2 7AY
Email:  b.kelly at ukoln.ac.uk     URL:    http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Homepage: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/b.kelly.html
Phone:  01225 323943            FAX:   01225 826838
----- Original Message -----
From: "Drew, Bill" <drewwe at snymorva.morrisville.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 2:37 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: Banner Pages for Promoting Library Resources an


> While not a banner ad we have a crawling text message in our logo that
we
> change quite often.  It is used to promote new resources or other
pertinent
> information.
>
> -----
> Wilfred (Bill) Drew
> Associate Librarian, Systems and Reference
> SUNY Morrisville College Library
> drewwe at morrisville.edu
> Home: http://www.morrisville.edu/~drewwe
> Not Just Cows: http://www.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/njc/
> Library: http://www.morrisville.edu/library/
> Have Laptop -- Will Travel.
>
>
> You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where
people
> sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of
employing
> wild animals as librarians.
> - Monty Python skit
>
>