Academic Department, Administrative Unit and Research Centre web pages shall be maintained by their respective webmasters.  Ultimate approval for content and site reviewing is the responsibility of Directors and Departmental Heads.  Web pages must be reviewed on a regular cycle, with one session at the start of each term and one session at the employment of a new webmaster.  At no time should web pages be out of date for more than 3 months in duration.  Information must be maintained in a timely and up-to-date manner and specific items, such as spelling and grammar, must be verified.  When reviewing web sites, it is the duty of the webmaster to ensure that no web page takes more than 12 seconds to download.
All official Lingnan University electronic publications must be approved by the President, Directors, Departments Heads or staff members who have administrative oversight of the area of the web site.  Electronic publications include any official documents or publications that purport to represent Lingnan University.  These include academic/curriculum information, admission materials, web training materials, course materials, job vacancies advertisements, etc.

Design

Departments, Administrative Units and Research Centres should support University branding and maintain a consistent ‘look and feel’ across all University specific web pages, so that the user experiences a degree of familiarity from one page to the next (e.g. banner, navigation, structure, etc).  These web sites should also have a consistent but unique ‘look and feel’ across their web pages.  Webmasters and staff members are advised to use the standard template for the main web page construction.
Self-designed web sites must first be approved by Directors, Department Heads or staff members who have administrative oversight of the area of the Web site, to then be endorsed by ITSC.
When undertaking such design tasks, please note the following…

• Written permission must be obtained from the person or organisation that owns any copyright material, when using photographs or images from the web or other media forms.
• Written permission must be obtained from the person or entity that owns the copyright for all copyrighted materials.
• Department web sites must have a link back to the Lingnan University homepage and to their own web sites.
• The Lingnan University logo can be freely used, but should never be altered without the prior permission of the Public Affairs Office (PAO).
• The departmental web page must include some description of the Department or Unit on the web site.
• The departmental web page must contain a contactable email address and a last modified time/date stamp.
• Information on the web site must be kept up-to-date, as always.
• Staff with administrative rights are responsible for ensuring that the information published and represented is factually accurate, plus the information is presented using correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, style, etc.  If errors are found, then the relevant webmaster should be notified at once and asked to perform necessary corrections under the supervision of staff that have administrative oversight of the area of the web site.

Webmasters

Each department or unit must designate a person who will work closely with Information Technology Services Centre (ITSC).  This individual will be the responsible person for departmental web pages.  Should a webmaster decide to leave his/her post, the department or unit is responsible for notifying ITSC and finding a replacement no more than 30 days prior to the day he/she departs.  Training will be provided by ITSC for all new webmasters.  All departments and units are required to submit a list of webmasters prior to the start of the new academic year.

Web Accounts

All Lingnan university web accounts are maintained by ITSC.
Departments, administrative staff and research units can apply for web accounts using the 'web account' on the ITSC web site – “User Request Form”.  The staff member must seek approval from his/her Department Head before applying.  They must adhere to all web policies, guidelines and web authoring guidelines as stated on the ITSC web site.
Upon successful application, the staff member will be granted a Username and password which is not transferable.  If they forget the password, then it will be reset upon written confirmation from either the staff member or Department Head.  In any case, if a staff member suspects that a password has been compromised, then they should immediately change their password or contact ITSC.  The department will be held responsible for any defamation caused to the University should a password be compromised.

Web Advisory Committee (Proposed)

The Web Advisory Committee should provide planning and direction for the continued growth and development of Lingnan University web sites.
This committee should review web pages for timeliness at least once per calendar year.  It should request the removal of any web pages that have modification dates of longer than one year.
The committee should handle all disputes or complaints about information published on any web site(s) through the University's existing grievance procedure, where appropriate.

The Advisory Committee should meet regularly to…

• define and evaluate the process for submitting information to the web site
• implement programs to encourage use of and participation in the web site
• discuss the function of Lingnan University web sites, identify areas which are not working well and seek alternative solutions
• discuss structural changes
• discuss changes to the general guidelines for web site publishers
• discuss the effect of technological advances on the web