[Web4lib] Public website policies that address workflow distribution

[John Fereira]

At 02:55 PM 1/18/2006, Gimon, Charles A wrote:

>Has there been a study about the amount of time libraries spend
>developing provisions and guidelines, as opposed to actually creating
>content?

You forgot the committees and meetings necessary to develop those 
provisions and guidelines, and you can't developing those provisions 
and guidelines without creating a committee to create a user 
study.  At one point awhile back I figured that I was spending almost 
two hours a week just traveling in between meetings.


>(Nothing personal intended regarding this request...but I couldn't
>resist getting this off my chest...)

Only personal experience, and it's not limited to libraries.  I was 
working for a large well known corporation in the late 80's that was, 
as was most high tech companies,  going through a lot of 
restructuring, downsizing, and every term one might use instead of 
lay-offs.  For many years it was a wonderful place to work as 
everyone was committed to producing the best possible product.  When 
harder times hit,  the focus changed more and more to producing 
glossy literature and justification for the existence of a particular 
project or department.  I was working in a department that underwent 
a restructuring and found myself working for someone whose career 
goal seemed to be to work himself into his next position by getting 
his employees to produce documentation about all the wonderful things 
his department was doing, so much so, that little time was available 
to actually do those wonderful things he was taking credit 
for.  Within a year I left the company after 13 years for a startup 
company where I was subsequently laid off after six months.


>--Charles Gimon
>   Web Coordinator
>   Minneapolis Public Library
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
>[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Brian Myers
>Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 11:51 AM
>To: web4lib at webjunction.org
>Subject: [Web4lib] Public website policies that address workflow
>distribution
>
>
>Greetings,
>
>I hate to pose this oft-repeated request once again, but the web4lib
>archives yielded mostly broken links, or examples that do not quite fit
>our needs.
>
>We are hammering out our first ever web content development policy, and
>we wish to look at examples of web site mission statements as well as
>any *public library* web development policies you may have developed,
>particularly if they contain provisions or guidelines governing the
>distribution of content development responsibilities among library staff
>members.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>
>_________________________________
>Brian W. Myers
>Reference Librarian and Web Manager
>Wilmette Public Library
>1242 Wilmette Ave.
>Wilmette, IL 60091
>(847) 256-5025
>E-Mail: bmyers at wilmette.lib.il.us http://www.wilmettelibrary.info
>
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John Fereira
jaf30 at cornell.edu
Ithaca, NY