[WEB4LIB] Standards for Web Page Submission

[Scritchfield, Larry]

I missed the "What's after HTML" discussion because I was out of town.
I'm all caught up on it now, after being alerted by this question.

I'm moving to XHTML Transitional/CSS. But I have some questions related to
Tim's.

What about vendors? Both in terms of Web-based catalogs and database
vendors? If we're looking to the future, shouldn't they be as well? Are
there
vendors who are doing a good job in these areas?

How can we as a community pressure them to comply with current standards?
Other than simply setting an example of course.

Larry Scritchfield
lscritch at mail.co.washoe.nv.us
Internet Services Librarian                             (775) 327-8349
Washoe County Library System                      www.washoe.lib.nv.us


> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Tim Smith [SMTP:tsmith1 at ohiou.edu]
> Sent:	Tuesday, November 26, 2002 8:43 AM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	[WEB4LIB] Standards for Web Page Submission
> 
> I found last week's discussion on "What's next after HTML?" to be very
> interesting and thought-provoking. This posting reflects one of the
> thoughts
> it provoked in me.
> 
> I'm the main web manager in an academic library and I'm gradually trying
> to
> evolve our pages to better compliance with accepted standards--XHTML would
> be my preference--but we're a long way from getting there. In my library
> there are a number of other staff members who submit pages to me for
> inclusion on our site, and sometimes these pages have abysmally bad HTML.
> In
> the most recent instance, the librarian in question had hired a student to
> do a series of finding lists in her subject area and what this student did
> was absolute and utter crap. He had done more than 40 pages before giving
> me
> any of them. I had to have MY student assistant clean them up, something
> she
> shouldn't have had to do, IMHO. In another instance, a huge set of pages
> for
> one library department have been done over the years by students with
> widely
> varying levels of expertise, and no one has had the time or inclination to
> deal with them.
> 
> My question is this: how many of you have written policies stating what
> condition pages must be in before they are submitted to you? And, more
> importantly, what kinds of things to you state in those policies? (I can
> think of one thing I'd say: pages from FrontPage or Word are not
> acceptable.) As far as I'm concerned, I'd really not spend much of my time
> cleaning up other people's messes--cleaning up my own is time-consuming
> enough--but I'd love to hear how other Web4Libbers handle this kind of
> situation.
> 
> Looking forward to your responses,
> 
> Tim Smith
> 
> *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
>     Tim Smith                    Phone: (740) 593-2634
>     Reference Dept.              E-Mail: tsmith1 at ohiou.edu
>     Alden Library, Ohio Univ.    Fax: (740) 593-0138
>     Athens, OH 45701
> 
>     "Technology has replaced reflection" -- Utah Phillips
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>