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IFLANET policy on centralization and independent Web sites
IFLA's Executive Board, at its meeting in Bangkok, Thailand in August 1999, decided that:
- IFLANET is officially recognised as the primary and exclusive vehicle for electronic communications within IFLA and the repository of all online IFLA-related information regardless of language.
- Individual IFLA unit Web sites are prohibited, and any in existence at that date would be migrated to IFLANET. [Note: For this purpose "IFLA Unit" is defined as any Division, Section, Discussion Group, Core Activity, Regional Office and any comparable unit which might be established in the future].
- IFLA Conference sites shall be hosted on IFLANET. Arrangements may be made with Conference organizers to cooperate on various aspects of their creation, including some pointers to external sites (for example; on-line registration, hotel information, etc.). However, the main Conference site shall reside on the IFLANET server.
- Consortia of members in a country or language group [but which are not IFLA units as defined above] may establish a site making use of some IFLA material that they translate. However, such sites can only be created if it is made clear that they are not official IFLA sites and if they do not carry the IFLA logo.
The Executive Board believes that a single IFLA Website:
- allows IFLA units to focus their energies on content, rather than the minutiae of running a Web site
- ensures a regular update schedule of all materials
- ensures that materials conform to IFLANET's brand or "look-and-feel", thus providing IFLA with a unified corporate look and a clearly identifiable network presence
- allows materials to be easily modified to reflect any future changes to that "look-and-feel"
- ensures that all materials are identifiable as authoritative IFLA documents
- allows materials to be mirrored on official IFLANET mirror sites
- permits all documents to be retrieved using an IFLANET site search tool
- ensures that all documents are part of IFLANET's long-term archive
- provides users with consistent user support
- allows materials to be included in any IFLANET initiatives designed to keep the Web site in step with network advances (e.g., eventual conversion to XML).
- guarantees continuous support, because the responsibility for IFLANET resides with IFLA. In contrast, Sections, Divisions, and other IFLA units can shift from person to person and institution to institution over time.
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