SUL Website Content Creation Guide

a. Decide what's most relevant

We recommend starting fresh, rather than beginning with content from the old library site. Bring in parts of the old content if you need to, but try rethinking rather than cutting and pasting.

Even when your content is thorough and comprehensive, it won’t answer every question a user could possibly have. This is both good news and bad: you can’t cover everything. (Nor can a website replace in-person library visits or direct communication between users and staff!)

So, what do you cover? Here are some questions to help you figure this out:

• Who would visit this page?
• Why would different kinds of users come to this page?
• What resources would they be looking for? (Remember to consider all relevant groups: grad students, undergrads, faculty...)
• What questions do we often get in person or via email that we could answer here?

Note that all of these questions are about the user. If you start by thinking about the user, rather than about the service or information itself, it’s easier to figure out what to include.

Err on the side of less content, not more. There are several reasons for this:

• Patrons can always contact you if they need more information.
• If you find that you're getting asked the same question repeatedly, you can always add more information.
• In the future, you will probably be more likely to add necessary information than to cull through the website and remove unnecessary information. Adding too much at the start tends to result in bloated or overstuffed pages.
• The more content you have, the more content you'll need to update. Including 150 outside links in a subject guide means regularly checking to make sure the links are still working.
• Patrons are less likely to read overstuffed pages with lots of extraneous information.

Additional considerations:

• Does every piece of content support something a user might want to do? (It should!)
• Am I including anything simply because we’ve included it before? Can I articulate a current need for it?

b. Organize content clearly

Organize your content more clearly than you think is necessary.

Start with an outline or ordered list. Experiment with the order of information, trying to put the most important topics toward the top (users don’t always make it to the bottom of a page).

Use headings and subheadings. This will let readers skim your page for the content they need. Make sure headings are adequately descriptive. Here are some examples:

• Not descriptive enough: More resources
• Why?: “More resources” could be a heading on practically any page; there’s nothing specific to your content. And more resources where? In the library? In the world?

• Too descriptive: More resources in the F. Scott Fitzgerald Collection that deal with topics such as Fitzgerald’s drinking problems and relationship to his wife, Zelda.
• Why?: With a heading like that, who needs a description? It’s descriptive, but not skimmable.

• About right: More Fitzgerald Collection resources at Stanford
• Why?: This heading tells interested readers that there’s more below, and tells other readers not to look any further if they’re not interested in the collection.

More information about writing headings is available in section 3.g. of this guide.

c. Make your page findable

“Search Engine Optimization” refers to the task of making it as easy as possible for users to do a search (on Google, on the library homepage, or anywhere else) and find your page.

• Content is a large part of what makes a page show up in a user’s search results.
• If there are specific words or terms that users might enter to get to your page, make sure those words appear within the content you create.
• After your page has been published for a few weeks, pretend that you’re a user searching for the page. How easy is it to find?

d. Enlist your peers

After you’re finished, but before posting what you’ve written, ask one or more of your peers to read the content. You’ve been knee-deep in it; they’ll provide a fresh perspective.

If possible, run the content by people with different backgrounds (e.g., one undergrad and one faculty member; someone less tech-savvy than you and someone more tech-savvy; someone who knows nothing about SULAIR’s resources and someone who is very familiar with them.

a. Be concise

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

     --Blaise Pascal

Most readers on the web are “surfers,” not “swimmers.” They tend to skim the surface of the information. The most useful websites incorporate this reality, allowing fast, simple navigation.

Concise writing takes practice, work, and editing. It often takes longer to write something in one sentence than in three. Consider the following examples:

1. One of the many places in our library for which you can look for books is the New Arrivals section. This section is located in the front of our library, through our main door. It contains everything from fiction to academic texts to recent academic publications by Stanford authors.
2. Our New Arrivals section, located just inside our main door, contains many types of recent fiction and nonfiction publications.

Both excerpts contain the same core information, but the second is better for several reasons:

• It's shorter, containing only 19 words. The first example contains 49.
• Because it starts with the subject of the paragraph, the second example is easier to skim.
• The second example also eliminates unnecessary details. Of course, this may vary. If your patrons tend to be interested in Stanford authors, maybe you should mention these. But more detail is not per se better.
• Most of the first example's opening sentence is fluff--of course patrons can look for books in a library.

First drafts often contain unnecessary throat-clearing:

• I looked out at the night and saw that the sky was very dark, in the middle of a storm.

While this “warm-up” writing may get you started, it shouldn’t be in the final draft:

• It was a dark and stormy night.

Your writing will be easier to edit if you let it sit for a few days. Professional writers rarely edit anything immediately after writing it. It’s easy to feel overly attached to words you just wrote.

b. Find the right tone

Good web writing is deceptively simple. On one hand, you want to seem professional and knowledgeable. On the other, you want to write clearly and accessibly to readers at all levels.

Examples:

• Too informal: We’ve got tons of super awesome new books; totally check them out!
• Why?: There’s no need to try to “speak undergraduate.” Plus, a phrase like “super awesome” is likely to alienate many patrons.

• Too formal: Our library hosts a plethora of novel tomes and you are cordially invited to visit!
• Why?: Never use a 50 cent word if a 10 cent word is just as good.

• Appropriate tone: We have many new books, and we’d love for you to stop by and check them out!
• Why?: Shows enthusiasm without being pretentious.

Three strategies for finding the right tone:

1. Have your audience in mind at every stage. Think of them as “educated laypeople.”
   • Assume they can read at a high school level, but...
   • Assume they have no specialized knowledge about the page’s topic.
   • Remember that many users’ first language is not English. Define or explain terms that may be unfamiliar.
2. Think of a specific person who fits the bill (a parent, niece or nephew, friend outside of Stanford, etc.). Imagine you’re writing an email to that person.
3. Find a book or website that strikes the tone you’re trying for. Spend five or ten minutes reading it before starting to write. This can get your brain into the right mental groove.

c. Use active voice

Active voice occurs when the subject of a sentence is performing the action (verb):

• I fed the dragon.
• Stanford defeated Duke.

In those two sentences, the nouns that are doing the actions are “I” and “Stanford.” The nouns that are having actions done to them are the dragon and Duke. In the passive voice, these latter nouns that are being acted upon become the sentences’ subjects:

• The dragon was fed by me.
• Duke was defeated by Stanford.

Active voice is nearly always better than passive voice. It makes for clearer writing and shorter, easier-to-read sentences.

But the really egregious use of passive voice occurs when the subject performing the action is taken out altogether:

• Books and software were purchased.
• Yorick’s skull was given to Stanford in 1957.

Who purchased these mysterious books and software? Who donated Yorick’s skull to the University? The sentences are better in the active voice:

• We purchased books and software.
• An anonymous donor gave Yorick’s skull to Stanford in 1957.

It can be tempting to write in passive voice because it’s often done in formal scientific writing, and it allows you to avoid “I” or “we.” The temptation should be resisted. (Ha, get it?)

If you need more clarification regarding active and passive voice, check out this site from Towson University and this site from Purdue’s Online Writing Lab.

d. Choose a point of view

A quick review on the points of view:

• First person point of view: I, we, us, our
• Second person point of view: you, your, yours
• Third person point of view: him/her/them, his/hers/theirs, she/he/they

Which one you use will depend on who you’re talking about: your patrons, yourself and/or your fellow librarians, or SULAIR collectively.

Let’s start with patrons. Because web writing is often instructional, the second person point of view usually reads most naturally. Consider these examples:

• Return your books to the loan desk to avoid a steep fine.
• Patrons should return books to the loan desk to avoid steep fines.

Both are correct, but the top one is easier to read--you’re talking to patrons, not about them. One exception is when you need to distinguish between categories of patrons (e.g., Students should come to the loan desk, and faculty members should knock three times on the secret door inside the elevator).

To talk about yourself and/or the library staff responsible for the resources you’re describing in the content, you’ll generally use the first person point of view. Consider these examples:

• We welcome your questions!
• The Music Library staff welcomes your questions!

The top example is more direct and gives patrons a sense that the Music Library staff is talking to them. (In the bottom example, either staff members are referring to themselves in the third person, or someone who is not a member of the staff is claiming that the staff will welcome questions.) Again, you can use the third person point of view to distinguish between actors (e.g., “Ray can answer questions about jazz; Sue can answer questions about ska”).

The third person is ideal for talking about SULAIR or Stanford collectively--that is, when you want to reference the broader Stanford community, as opposed to just your corner of it.

e. Construct clear paragraphs

Paragraphs can be structured as “Inverted pyramids.” Few users read all the way to the end, so be sure present information in the order of the most relevance to the most users.

• The most important, essential information should come first. If this content is just what your user needs, you want her to know that right away.
• Follow this with supporting information, such as key details or exceptions to a rule.

Less is more.

Be direct and to the point.

Challenge yourself to write as simply and clearly as possible.

Paragraph length:

• Web writing typically uses shorter paragraphs than other, more formal, types of writing. With few exceptions, your longest paragraphs should only be around 150 words.
• Users tend to skim through web documents, so keep paragraphs short, with only one big idea per paragraph. (Even a single sentence or two may suffice!)
• Break up longer paragraphs with bulleted or numbered lists or images.

Paragraph formatting (the defaults in Workbench):

• Paragraphs should be block style with no indented lines (except for lists, examples, or block quotes).
• Separate paragraphs with a full blank line.
• Separate sections and subsections with two full blank lines.

f. Write concise sentences

Sentences must be direct, clear, and concise. The challenge is to eliminate unnecessary words without sacrificing clarity. You don’t need to be cryptic--include enough context so that it is easy to understand the concept. Sentences on the web should cover one thought (or at most, two closely related thoughts) and should generally be no more than 25 words long.

• Clunky: Falconer Library opens early at 7 am every Tuesday, when a complimentary continental breakfast is available for all of our patrons to enjoy.
• Better: Falconer Library serves a free continental breakfast, open to all, on Tuesdays at 7 am.

• Clunky: Since some of our books circulate less frequently than others, those that circulate less frequently are stored offsite at one of three auxiliary libraries. They can be requested in one of two ways: by calling the reference desk at 725-BOOK or by coming to the library in person and talking to the person at the reference desk.
• Better: Some of our books are stored at Stanford’s auxiliary libraries. You can request these by phone (725-BOOK) or in person at the reference desk.

Here are a few tips for writing clear, concise sentences:

• Use the present tense as much as possible.
• Clunky: Patrons will need to apply for library cards.
• Better: Patrons need to apply for library cards.
• Keep verbs strong and direct.
• Clunky: You can request a renewal for books online.
• Better: You can renew books online.
• Ensure that all modifiers are necessary.
• Clunky: In order to support the varying research and instructional needs of our patrons, the Music Library has DVDs that teach various vocal techniques.
• Better: The Music Library has DVDs that teach various vocal techniques.

g. Write effective headings

Strong headings are short and concise, letting readers scan a page and quickly find what they need. (Often, you can eliminate “-ing” and use a shorter form of a verb. “Find an article” is better than “Finding an article;” “Search” is better than “searching.”)

Strong headings clearly describe content, using words familiar to users.

Strong headings are not complete sentences, unless they are questions

• Complete sentences take longer to skim.
• Complete sentences often wrap to the next line, which looks less crisp.

Acceptable punctuation for headings:

• Question marks (for questions)
• Colons (to introduce a list)
• No punctuation (the rest of the time)

Three basic types of headings:

1. Question headings

• What if a book is missing from the stacks?
• What does a subject specialist do?

2. Topic headings

• Missing books
• Subject specialists

3. Headings that introduce a list or a set of instructions

• Patrons eligible for RLCP:
• How to request a locker:

While writing headings or subheadings, ask yourself:

• What will users come to this page to find?
• What problems, questions, or tasks will they have?
• What’s the most straightforward way I can help them?

Examples of good headings:

• Request an item
• How to request items:
• How do I request an item?

Examples of headings that need editing or revision:

• If I want to request an item, how do I do it? (This is too long.)
• Request (As a heading, this is probably too cryptic, depending on the rest of the page.)
• Request an item. (This shouldn’t end with a period.)

How do I know if a page needs subheadings at all?

• Text that extends “below the fold” (meaning that a user has to scroll down to read all of it) is an excellent candidate for subheadings.
• It’s better to err on the side of more subheadings than fewer, as long they’re short and their meanings are clear.

This guide isn’t a primer on grammar or style, but covers Stanford-specific style rules. For other grammar questions, consult a classic like Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style (or the more modern Grammar Girl books). More references are listed at the end of the CCG.

a. Words and word choice

Talking about the library: There are two acceptable ways to reference Stanford Libraries:

1. Stanford University Libraries
2. Stanford Libraries

• "SULAIR" and "Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources" are no longer used.
• Do not use "Stanford’s libraries," because this makes it sound as though you are speaking on behalf of all of Stanford's different libraries separately, rather than about the organization.

A few other general rules:

• Capitalize library names (e.g., Falconer Biology Library; the Music Library), as well as named collections (e.g., items in the Finnie Collection).
• However, when you are simply saying "library" or "collection," do not capitalize, even if you're talking about a specific collection or library. (Example: The East Asia Library hosts many exhibits and exhibitions. The library's most recent exhibit was about Chinese brush painting.)

Branch library names: The following chart shows the official names and other acceptable names for all of Stanford's libraries. When referring to any of the libraries listed below (in print and online materials), use the offical name or one of the other acceptable names. Occasionally, titles, menus, etc., on the website may use other versions; but in the content you create, be sure only to use the approved names below.

Official name (preferred)	Other acceptable names	Don't use these names
Archive of Recorded Sound	none	ARS; Music archives
Art & Architecture Library	none	Art Library
Falconer Biology Library	Biology Library; Falconer Library	Falconer
Classics Library	none
Tanner Memorial Library	Tanner Library; Philosophy Library	Tanner; Philosophy
Business Library	GSB Library	Jackson Library; Jackson
Cecil H. Green Library	Green Library
Swain Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Library	Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Library Swain Library	Chemistry Library; Swain Library; Swain; Swain Chemistry Library
Branner Earth Sciences Library & Map Collections	Earth Sciences Library; Branner Library	Branner
East Asia Library	none	EAL
Cubberley Education Library	Cubberley Library; Education Library	Cubberley
Terman Engineering Library	Engineering Library; Terman Library	Terman
Hoover Institution Archives	Hoover Archives	Hoover; HIA
Hoover Institution Library	Hoover Library	Hoover
Robert Crown Law Library	Law Library; Crown Library; SLS Law Library; SLS Library	Law; Crown
Harold A. Miller Marine Biology Library at Hopkins Marine Station	Hopkins Librar; Miller Library; Marine Biology Library	Miller; Hopkins
Mathematics & Statistics Library	Math & Statistics Library	Math Library; Math & Stats Library
Lane Medical Library	Lane Library; Medical Library	Lane
The J. Henry Meyer Memorial Library	Meyer Library	Meyer
Music Library	none
SLAC National Accelerator Lab Research Library	SLAC Library
Special Collections & University Archives	Special Collections	Special Collections & Archives; Collections & Archives; SPEC
Stanford Auxiliary Library 1&2 (SAL1&2)	SAL1&2	SAL 1 & 2; Auxiliary Libraries; SAL; SAL 1 and 2
Stanford Auxiliary Library 3 (SAL3)	SAL3	SAL 3; Auxiliary Library 3; SAL Livermore
Stanford Auxiliary Library, Off-campus Newark	SAL Newark	Newark

 

Referring to individual libraries:

• If libraries have a subject name and another name (for example, "the Biology Library" and "Falconer Library"), you can use either one.  But do not use the name (e.g., "Falconer") except where the subject matter (e.g., biology) will already be clear to the reader. 
• For consistency, we will all use "Circulation" to describe the service/place where we provide circulation services and (in some cases) privileges information and services. (User testing shows that "circulation" is a more recognizable term than "loan.")

 

b. Punctuation, capitalization, numbers, and more

Spacing between sentences: Use one space after periods. (Two spaces is not incorrect, just inconsistent with Stanford’s style.)

"And" versus "&": Use an ampersand only in two instances:

1. When it is part of a proper name, such as a journal name (e.g., Gender & Society) or a library name (e.g., "Math & Statistics Library")
2. In tables, menus, headings, or other places where space is at a premium

• In general prose, ampersands should be avoided (e.g., you'd write, "We have many books and periodicals," not "We have many books & periodicals."

Commas: For a list of more than two items, use a comma before "and" and the last item.

• Good: I love Pinter, Beckett, and Stoppard.
• Less good: I love Pinter, Beckett and Stoppard.

Acronyms: Abbreviations can be confusing to newer partons, so try not to use acronyms unless absolutely necessary.

• Short acronyms should almost never be used. (For example, never refer to the Information Center as the “IC.”)
• If you use an acronym, spell it out the first time you use it, then put the acronym in parentheses after it, and use the acronym thereafter.
• Example: The Research Libraries Cooperative Program (RLCP) allows Stanford users to check out books from UC Berkeley and UT Austin. Visiting scholars are not eligible to use RLCP.
• Common abbreviations, such as those for "University of California" (UC), "United States" (US), and those for state names (CA, HI, NY, etc.) should not have periods after them. For example, you’d write "US," not "U.S."
• Do not put periods in abbreviations after academic degrees.  For example, write "PhD" instead of "Ph.D" or Ph.D."

Capitalization:

• Proper nouns should always be capitalized. See the previous section (4. a) for capitalization of words such as "library" and "collection."
• For headings, the SULAIR site uses sentence case. This means that in headings and titles, only the first word is capitalized (except for proper nouns, which are always capitalized). For example:
• Incorrect: Finding German Language Texts
• Correct: Finding German language texts
• Incorrect: Borrowing Books
• Correct: Borrowing books, or better yet, Borrow books

Numbers:

• Times of day should be written with a number, then a single space, then “am” or “pm” (no periods). For example, 6 pm.
• Centuries should be written with a numeral and lowercase letters (e.g., "We have writings from the 15th century").
• Numbers consisting of four digits or fewer should contain no comma (e.g., 8192, not 8,192), but numbers containing five digits or more should contain a comma every three digits, starting from the right (e.g., 67,108,864).
• Phone numbers should be written in the following format: (858) 993-4592.
• In general, you should usually write out numbers one through ten and use numerical digits for numbers 11 and above. However, there are a few exceptions:
• If a sentence starts with a number, always write out that number in words. Don't start a sentence with a numerical digit.
• The rule of "normalization," which nearly all style guides agree on, dictates that if you are using two numbers in a sentence, one above ten and one below it, and both numbers are referring to the same thing (inches, books, whatever), you should use numerals for both of them.  For instance, you'd write, "We have eight volumes."  But you'd write: "We have 8 volumes on each shelf, and 52 volumes total."
• If two numbers are next to each other and one is describing the other, it's easier to read if you write out one of the numbers.  For example, the phrase "sixteen 11-inch records" is easier to read than "16 11-inch records."

Common contractions (e.g., don't, won't, can't) are perfectly acceptable.

Dashes: Dashes can be created by using two hyphens in a row with no space on either side of them--like this--see?

Pluralizing words that end in "s": Simply put 's after these words.  For example, you'd write, "Terry Tempest Williams's work is stunning." (It's also technically correct to write Williams' without the final "s"--the decision to use 's instead of just an apostrophe is stylistic.

Emphasis:

• Use bold:

1. for emphasis
2. to introduce a new term.

• Use italics

1. for book and periodical titles
2. To emphasize an example

• NEVER use all CAPS. IT'S A WELL-ACCEPTED CONVENTION THAT THIS MAKES PEOPLE FEEL AS IF YOU ARE YELLING AT THEM.
• Don't underline for emphasis, because then people will think it's a hyperlink and that they can click on it, which they can't. So it's confusing.

 

c. Particularly common (and important) terms and cases:

Use these	Do not use these
Subject Librarians	Subject Specialists or subject librarians
Information Center	IC
Stanford Libraries or Stanford University Libraries	SULAIR or Stanford Libraries and Information Resources or Stanford's libraries
the library	the Library
email	e-mail
the Internet	the internet
website	Website
SearchWorks	searchworks or Searchworks or Search Works

 

 

a. Text

Headings

• Headings should be in "sentence case"--that is, only the first word of the heading, plus proper nouns, should be capitalized.
• Font style and color will be automatically formatted.
• Within the body of a page, you can create headings and subheadings (in descending order of size, these are H1, H2, H3, and H4). H1 is only for higher-level page titles. For this reason, do not use H1. H2 should be the largest heading you use.
• Create headings and subheadings using H2, H3, etc. Do not simply fashion your own heading style using bold type or your own spacing scheme. This is important, because using the heading tags:

1. Improves web accessibility for the vision-impaired because of the way screen reading programs work.
2. Makes formatting viewable to everyone. Even if a "pseudo-heading" looks okay in your browser, it may not look okay in others'.

Cutting and pasting text from other sources

If you cut text from another source, such as MS Word, and paste it into the Workbench interface, it may not show up correctly.

• If you're using MS Word, paste the text in as unformatted. This will eliminate many formatting problems.
• Word processing programs with an option to write in plain text (such as Notepad and TextEdit) are likely to create fewer formatting problems when cut and pasted.
• One common problem with cutting and pasting is that a blank line often shows up before the first line of text, or after the last line. Double-check to make sure that this is removed.
• If you aren't able to write in plain text, then after you paste text into the Workbench interface, highlight all of the text and click on the image of the white eraser (circled in red below):

If you click the formatting eraser, most formatting will be erased, and your text will be easier to edit. However, certain things, such as lists, will not be unformatted. So you'll still need to go manually through the text and make sure everything shows up okay.

b. Reusable content

One of the new website's coolest features (and one many of you requested!) is "reusable content." This lets you grab content from some other place on the Stanford Libraries website and re-use it instead of creating it again from scratch.

This also means that when you change reusable content, the content will change on every page that uses it.

(More detail coming soon!)

c. Images and videos (more coming soon)

Image captions

• Should be about 150 characters
• Should not end with a period unless they are a complete sentence
• Should describe, label, or refer to the image with which they are connected

 

d. Documents

Particularly for documents that you do not want or need people to modify, PDF documents are preferrable to MS Word documents. Not everyone uses Word, and there are many versions of it that may or may not be compatible with one another.

Using digital material--even a Word document--is an "act of distribution." Distribution is the exclusive right of the copyright owner. This means that to put a document on the library site, you need to get permission from the copyright holder (unless the work is in the public domain or explicitly licensed for redistribution). 

When in doubt, link to documents instead of uploading them.

 

 

e. Lists (coming soon)

f. Tables

Most content creators won’t need to make tables. However, they may be useful in a few instances:

• To present comparisons or relationships
• To show a set of contingencies too complicated to explain in a list, such as “if-then” situations

Consider the following hypothetical information: The Murakami-Didion Collection is divided between two different locations. Most of it is in Green stacks, but older items (before 1997 for Murakami and before 1979 for Didion) are kept in Special Collections. Anyone is welcome to check out items in the collection, with the exception of pre-1979 Didion items, which only faculty members may check out. The length of allowable borrowing time varies depending on the item. Older (pre-1997) Murakami items may be checked out for one week, other Murakami items for two weeks, older (pre-1979) Didion items for three weeks, and Didion items published 1979 or later for five weeks.

Although the paragraph above is written about as clearly as possible, it’s confusing! This information can be more easily (and quickly!) understood if it’s presented in a table:

Collection	Publication date	Who can borrow?	Check-out length	Located
Murakami	before 1997	Anyone	One week	Special collections
Murakami	1997-present	Anyone	Two weeks	Green stacks
Didion	before 1979	Faculty only	Three weeks	Special collections
Didion	1979-present	Anyone	Five weeks	Green Stacks

You create a table in Workbench almost the same way you do in MS Word, only the formatting of the table is pre-set.

One important note about tables: they should never be used to create a page layout. That is, they should only be used as above--to show relationships between information, or to categorize information, more effectively.

g. Links

To create a hyperlink in your text:

1. Highlight the text you want to link to a website or email address.
2. Click on the button that looks like a tiny globe with a chain below it.
3. Enter the address of the website or the email address.

The clickable text that makes up a hyperlink should be written in plain language that flows with the prose around the link:

• Good: Chris Bourg, Assistant University Librarian for Public Services, writes a blog.
• Not good: Chris Bourg (http://librarypreview.stanford.edu/people/mchris), Assistant University Librarian, blogs, which you can view at: http://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/
• Why?: Putting links in the text breaks up the flow. Users will recognize hyperlinked text in your content and know that they can click on it.
• An exception: You may want to include the whole link address for within-Stanford links in the rare case that the link itself is important. E.g: crucialthing.stanford.edu.

The clickable text should make it clear where the link will take a user. A user should be able to tell exactly what he or she is linking to from the link alone. This is especially important because some screen reader programs for the visually impaired will read links separately, and the text should make it evident where the link will take the user.

For instance, suppose I want to write a sentence that links to the interlibrary loan page:

• Confusing: There are many ways to borrow materials from non-Stanford libraries.
• Why?: Because the linked text is “non-Stanford libraries,” it seems as though the link will take users to a of list of non-Stanford libraries, or to a definition of non-Stanford libraries. It leaves the user wondering what these mysterious “ways” entail.
• Still confusing: There are many ways to borrow materials from non-Stanford libraries.
• Why?: Hyperlinking “materials” implies that the link addresses which materials can be borrowed. It’s better than the previous example, but still misleads the user a little.
• Clear: There are many ways to borrow materials from non-Stanford libraries.
• Why?: Because the link will take the user directly to borrowing these materials.

In general, only link to something once.

• For example, if you’re a music librarian writing about the Monterey Jazz Festival Collection, you might want to link to the actual festival the first time you mention it. However, you don’t need to link to the festival every subsequent time you write “Monterey Jazz Festival.”
• Possible exceptions to this rule:
• Long pages, where a reader who gets to the bottom of a page would have to scroll more than a page back up to the top to see the link.
• Pages with subheadings--i.e., where a reader might only read one section of a page. If this is the case, it’s fine to include the same hyperlink in multiple sections; a given reader might only see it once.

More tips for creating links:

• Using key terms in the link text makes it easier for users and search engines to find it.
• Links can help a user scan a page quickly, but they can overwhelm a page, too. Avoid gratuitous links.Only add one if you think that a significant number of users will actually want to go there.
• Consider where to place links in your content. After all, users might leave your page when they reach a link that looks interesting, causing them to miss other information.
• Link to SearchWorks records wherever possible.
• You can link to an email address by writing mailto:emailaddress@stanford.edu instead of an Internet address. This way, when a user clicks on the link, his or her email program will automatically open an email to the recipient.

 

This page contains information about special content types: a. people pages, b. topic and course guides, and c. news items.

 

a. People pages

What are People pages? 

People pages are library staff profile pages on the new library website. These pages provide contact information, photos (optional), and additional information about library staff.

Where will People pages show up?

All People pages will be searchable from the library home page, and can also be linked to other types of pages (e.g., Project or Department pages, or as authors of blog posts or news articles). Subject Librarians' People pages and People pages of the directors who report directly to the University Librarian will appear under "About  >  People" on the Library home page. 

Who will have People pages?

Only Stanford Libraries staff members who set their StanfordWho directory preference to "Public" will have a People page. If your directory preference is set to "Stanford and Affiliates" or to "Private," you will not have a People page unless you change your directory preference to "Public." You can update your directory preference in StanfordYou; this is explained below. Directory preferences are updated nightly, so there will be a one-day delay between the time you make your StanfordWho information public and the time your People page is available for you to edit.

How do I make a profile?

1. Go to librarypreview.stanford.edu and click "Login" in the upper right corner of the page.
2. Log in with your SUNet ID.
3. Navigate to librarypreview.stanford.edu/people/yoursunetid (where "yoursunetid" = your actual SUNet ID).
4. Click on the "Edit" tab to begin writing or editing your People page.

How do get my name, email address, and phone number to show up correctly?

• Your name is automatically filled in with your StanfordWho information.  If you want to change this, You'll need to edit your preferred name, which you can do by following these steps:
• Go to StanfordYou.
• Click on "Maintain your directory and AlertSU emergency contact information."
• Under "Name & ID," click on "change."
• On the next screen, enter a preferred name as you would like it to display.  (If you need to change your legal name, follow the instructions on the right-hand column of the "Name & ID" page.)
• Changes will appear on your People page within 24 hours.

• Your email address and work phone number are also filled in with information from StanfordWho.
• To appear on your People page, these need to be set to "public" on StanfordWho, which you can do on StanfordYou.
• Subject Librarians and other public services staff are required to have these two items set as "public."  If you have questions about this, contact your supervisor.
• Changes will appear on your People page within 24 hours.

Writing the text of your People page:

• Write your profile in the first person point of view, which will make it sound more personal and accessible.
• How much you want to say about yourself is up to you and your unit supervisor.  All staff are highly encouraged to include at least a photograph and a description of your role in the library.

Your photo:

• Must be a head and shoulders shot of you (e.g., not your dog or favorite book).
• Must be in color. No black and white, sepia, or photos enhanced with Hipstamatic or Instagram effects. (Even though these can look great, we want them to be uniform for the site.)
• Please include a photo credit indicating who took the picture. If the picture was taken by a SUL staff member, use the following format: "Photo by Kenneth Chan / SUL.  If the photo you are using was not taken by a SUL staff member, you must have permission to use the photo and the credit should be in the following format: "Photo by Diane Doolan".
• Please include a caption for your photo. In most cases, the caption will just be your name. In some cases, you might want to add additional information, such as "Adan Griego, in front of Green Library."
• To enter credit and caption information, upload and submit your photo, then select "Edit Media."
• Credit and Caption information will appear as hover text (appearing when a user hovers his or her cursor over the photo).

 

• If you don't want a photo, you don't have to add one. If you don't, the default image of the Stanford seal will appear instead.

Guidelines for specific sections of your People page:

Academic degrees

• List the degree type (MFA, PhD, etc.), as well as the college or university from which you received each degree.
• List the subject in which you received each degree.
• The year of each degree is optional.
• List degrees in the order of most recent to least recent.

Professional activities

• This section should be a list (with no bullets or numbers) of your professional affiliations and service (e.g., Society of American Archivists), as well as university service (e.g., Stanford Judicial Panel Pool).

Person type

• Only Subject Librarians and leadership (those who report directly to the University Librarian) should select "Person type." Subject Librarians are those who have been explicitly assigned to develop collections and/or provide advanced reference support in particular subject areas.
• If you are not sure whether you should select "Subject Librarian" as your person type, please consult your supervisor.

Department

• Only select a department if you belong to a department that currently has a department page. Otherwise, select "none."

Subject

• Please pay special attention to these guidelines. Subject terms are used to pull together resources about each subject, so it's important that we use these judiciously and consistently.
• The only people who should select any subjects are:
• Information Center Core Reference staff
• Subject Librarians
• Top-level subjects are only provided as navigational terms for content creators. So please do not select any of the following:
• General and interdisciplinary
• Arts
• Humanities
• International Area Studies
• Science and Engineering
• Social Sciences
• Information Center Core Reference staff should select "General Reference" as a subject. If you are not Information Center Core Reference staff, please do not select "General Reference."
• Other format-specific subject terms should also be used sparingly.  For example, only the Rare Books Curator should select "Rare Books."  Only staff working in the University Archives and/or Manuscripts Division should select "Manuscripts and Archives."  Only Subject Librarians with "digital" in their job title (e.g., "Digital Humanities" or "Digital and Rare Maps Librarian") should select "Digital Collections."

Your role in the library

• Briefly describe your major job responsibilities. There is no need to include your full job description; simply describe what you to in the library in terms that patrons are likely to understand.
• This should be written in complete sentences, and in the first person point of view (using "I").

More about you

• This section can include major projects you are working on or have worked on, relevant prior appointment, links to social media (Twitter, your blog, etc.), and other information about you that patrons are likely to find interesting.
• This should be written in complete sentences, and in the first person point of view (using "I").

Selected publications

• Write these as a list (with no bullets or numbers.
• Use full citations (MLA or your discipline's standard style). 
• Include a link to an online version when available.

Topic Guides and Course Guides

• Published Topic Guides or Course Guides that you have authored (or are tagged on) will automatically appear on your People page, right below the "Role in the library" section.

 

b. Topic and course guides

Creating guides

Topic and course guides can be created by Subject Librarians, or a Subject Librarian can designate someone to make a guide on his or her behalf.

To create a guide, you first need to attend a training session, then get authorization privileges for content creation. Subject Librarians are encouraged to collaborate on cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary guides.

How many guides you make, and how general or specific they are, should be determined by the needs of the patrons you hope will read your guides. Guides are not moderated, so you can publish them yourself and edit them whenever you like.

General tips about guide content

A few tips for making your guides useable and accessible for Stanford students and faculty, as well as the broader scholarly community:

• Take care to avoid information overload, in the form of long lists of citations or links. Users tend to skim over these lists and often choose the one or two entries at the top. Ask yourself if it better serves the user to list the top five most important or relevant sources only. Alternately, can you divide the list into sections with headings to facilitate browsing?
• Make sure your content conforms to all sections of this Content Creation Guide.
• Integrate new content into your guides rather than simply tacking new content on at the end.
• Save your content every few minutes while you’re writing; this reduces the chance that your data will be lost.
• Schedule regular self-audits of your content, making sure that content is kept up to date.

 

Choosing a title

Topic guide titles should be descriptive and include appropriate keywords. Titles that are clever but unclear will make it hard for users to find your guide.

Research skills guide titles should start with “Find.” All other guide titles should exclude the words “find,” “finding,” and “guide.”

Course guide titles and instructor names should be taken from the Stanford Bulletin. Use the long course title as your guide title, but omit the abbreviated course name and number (instead, that should go into the course field). Here's an example:

Course guide title: Music ethnography of the Bay Area
Course: Music 147a/247a
Instructor: Schultz, A.

For course guides for Program in Writing & Rhetoric courses, use an abbreviated version of the course title for your course guide title (drop the “Writing & Rhetoric 1” part of the course title). Here’s an example:

Course guide title: The Rhetoric of Gaming
Course: PWR 1CA
Term: Fall 2012
Instructor: Alfano, C.

Description

The “description” field is crucial, because it appears in search results to give users a preview of your guide’s content (and a reason to click on your guide). You should carefully craft a one-to-three-sentence description to identify the content as a topic guide or a course guide and concisely describe the content and intended audience.

Do not leave “description” empty and do not use an image without text in this section. Search results for your guide will be much more accurate if you use descriptive keywords in the title and throughout the description text.

Example of a good course guide description:

• A guide to resources for PWR 1CA: The Rhetoric of Gaming. Topics include how gameplay in a variety of genres operates as argument about cultural values and how games function as sites of community building, social networking, and learning.

Example of a good topic guide description:

• This guide is designed for those getting started on research in psychology.

 

Other important tips for guides

Add appropriate research skills to your guide by selecting “related research skills” when setting up the guide. Most guides should include the “Find books” and “Find articles” research skills. Add related research skills as appropriate for a course or topic.

Select appropriate subjects for your guides. In most cases, avoid the very top level subjects, as they are too general to be useful to patrons who are looking for a guide.

If your guide isn’t showing up in searches as frequently or effectively as you’d like it to, please contact OEG, and they can work with you to make your guide easier to find.

Add the appropriate Subject Librarians as “People” to your guides.

Use the links (around Stanford) section to add links to related Stanford resources, such as academic departments or research center websites.

Under “Related,” add links to related topic and/or course guides (not “research skills,” which should be added under “related research skills”).

Use the “add blog” widget to add a blog feed for a Stanford Libraries blog or the “add RSS widget to add a blog feed for an external blog.

Author and People fields for topic and course guides  

A guide’s author:

• Can edit and publish the guide
• Can add people to the guide
• Should also be added to the guide under “People” if they want to:
• Appear on the sidebar under “Subject Librarians”
• Have the guide automatically listed on their “People” page

The person who initially creates a guide is listed as “author” (there is only one), but the author or anyone under “People” can change that field later.  Multiple people can be added under “People.”

In guides, people in the “People” field:

• Are added by the guide’s author
• Can edit and publish guides
• Show up in the sidebar under “Subject Librarians”
• Have the guide automatically listed on their own “People” page

If a Subject Librarian wants another staff member to edit a guide, but not be listed as a Subject Librarian for that guide, then the staff member should be listed under “Author,” and the Subject Librarian should be added under “People.”

c. News items  

The news section of the SUL website is a good place to feature current events and exhibits, significant acquisitions, new/interesting collections and e-resources, and new projects and project updates, as well as some staff announcements (since this news page is more public facing and focused, some staff announcements should go through the all-sul-staff email list instead).

If you have permissions to create web content, you can submit news items yourself in the content creation interface or you can submit articles (or questions) to the editors via the submit-sul-news@lists.stanford.edu email list.

A news submission is just like any other content on the website in that it must conform to the Content Creation Guide. Pay particular attention to sections on creating titles, writing for the web, and images.

Other guidelines for news submissions:

• The left-justified highlight image must be preformatted to the correct size: 120 x 160 pixels. If it’s not the correct size, it will be automatically cropped and the resulting image may not be optimal.
• Like all images, news images must include a caption and credit information.
• You must choose a category for you article: collection highlights, events, or staff news.
• Your article will be published after the News editors have reviewed it, usually within one working day.

 

 

Coming soon: blogs; books; branch pages; projects.

 

Anticipate information that is likely to change.

• When is it likely to change?
• Do you have a plan for how it will stay updated?

Avoid including technical details that are likely to change.

• For example, don’t include step-by-step instructions for browser configuration, because it’s hard to keep this up-to-date and accurate.
• E.g., don’t write, “Internet Explorer 6.0 displays this page best.” As soon as a new version of the browser is released in a few months, your information will be obsolete.
• Use caution when explaining how to use an external site or application. The site or application may change, rendering your explanation obsolete. Instead, link to the technology itself.
• E.g., Instead of telling users how to install Adobe Acrobat, link to Adobe’s installation page. This way, the instructions will still make sense if Adobe updates its procedure or releases a new version.

Provide contact information so users can reach you.

• If you’re not this contact person, make sure that you’re in communication with whoever is; he or she should be very familiar with your site.

Make sure your content is comprehensible to all users. If you have basic and advanced material on the same page, make sure the basic material comes first.

Here are some ways to deal with more specialized or advanced information:

• Put it under subheadings.
• Create a separate page for it (to which you link from the intro page).

Schedule a website content review for yourself in six months or a year.

(Stay tuned for more information about supporting your users going forward: coming soon!)