More on Blogging Guidelines

March 31st, 2005

At CIL this year, I spent a considerable amount of time on guidelines and policies for library weblogs. I showed a few examples from the corporate environment. Yesterday, my aggregator pointed me to Venture Blog, which posted a link to a Howard Rice Alert on corporate blogging risks.

The guidelines posted seem more related to the library environment than the risks. These “practical guidance” bullets are as follows:

Creating a written policy for employees that sets out clear guidelines for corporate blogging and raises awareness about possible pitfalls. Companies may wish to have separate guidelines for employees’ discussion of the company in their personal blogs.

Establishing terms of use for the corporate blog and posting appropriate disclaimers that limit the company’s liability for third-party statements and other claims.

Regularly monitoring the corporate blog for content that violates terms of use, employee policies or applicable laws.

Taking the steps required to qualify for the safe harbors available under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Ensuring that any personal information gathered from users via the corporate blog is handled in compliance with applicable privacy laws and the applicable privacy policy.

Archiving corporate blog content in a well-organized and readily available form.

(Howard Rice - 2005)

Blog guidelines and policies are going to become more important for libraries as more jump onto the bandwagon. I hope that these examples help in formulating an official policy for your library. On a related note, we will most likely be hearing from an expert in blogging ethics at Internet Librarian in October. It’s not set in stone, but she has agreed to speak during the blogging track. Stay tuned…

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