[Web4lib] Managing Patron Interaction on Website

[Bret Parker]

See answers below.

Bret Parker
Technology Project Coordinator
City of Stockton

bret.parker at ci.stockton.ca.us
(209) 937-7148

http://www.stocktongov.com


>>> "Shawn E. Romine" <seromine at co.douglas.or.us> 9/9/2008 2:22 PM >>>
>Hello,
>
>
>
>We are just about to take the next step with our public website (using
>the CMS TikiWiki) in allowing patron interaction (comments, forum posts,
>etc.) and I have a couple of questions regarding policy and procedure:
>
>
>
>1)Could someone share any disclaimer/guidelines they use regarding
>patrons posts on library websites?  Do you usually have a disclaimer?
>What I am looking for is general guidelines for patrons (racist
>comments, foul language, etc.), to include something that lets the
>patrons know ultimately the library is responsible for the content and
>can remove/edit at will.

An example of a disclaimer/policy:
   http://www.readsanjoaquin.org/DiscussionEtiquette

>2)How much problems do you have with offensive material being posted and
>how do you handle it?  Who determines what is offensive (is "democrats
>suck" offensive?)? Is there an elaborate process involved (cmte?) or is
>it generally handled by the webmaster? Library Director?

   The most common posting was mainly off-topic links to products otherwise purchased at a pharmacy.  Once they found they could post, the postings became frequent, voluminous,  and from a source not specific to any one IP or range of IP addresses. For those reasons, and due to the fact that the program featured  had run to completion already,  we turned off the ability to comment that page.  

>3)Do you generally have some type of mechanism that allows you to
>preview the comment before it is posted, or do you generally allow it to
>post and then remove it?

   We opted not to do it before it was posted. Email alerts notify that the content of a page has changed. The admins for the website then check the page and if they find off-topic, SPAM-like advertising, they can delete the posting.

>Any information you can provide to shed some light on this subject is
>much appreciated. Certainly libraries are not in the business of
>censoring information, but we want to establish guidelines right up
>front which will most likely help with resolving issues in the future.

Not into censoring, but we don't like to be a signboard for taggers, guerilla marketers, and SPAMMERS either. That wasn't our Web 2.0 goal. 


>Shawn Romine
>
>Electronic Resources Librarian
>
>Douglas County Library
>
>Roseburg, OR
>
>541-440-4228

>seromine at co.douglas.or.us 

>http://dclibrary.us 





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