| The purpose of these guidelines is to define the site
structure, site look and feel, page content, credit and graphics requirements for all Canada's Digital Collections (CDC) projects. Section 5, in
particular, sets limits for the size of images that may be digitized and stored, which will determine any hardware or memory acquired
under the contract. |
|
1. |
Site Structure and Language |
1.1. |
A storyboard describing the structure of
the site and navigational elements and a project time line should be
sent to Industry Canada and the CDC Technical Support Group at the
beginning of the project. |
1.2. |
Each site will be no
more than six (6) levels deep. |
1.3. |
The homepage must
be named one of the following:index.htm, index.html, index.asp, default.htm
or default.html. |
1.4. |
In order to
facilitate indexing by search engines each site must include meta data in the format below. Special attention should be given to the sections
that are going to be submitted to search engines. At minimum, the homepage of each section
will contain meta data. |
|
<meta name="Description" content="Brief description of your site.">
<meta name="Keywords" content="keyword, keyword, etc.">
Example:
<HEAD>
<meta name="description" content="THE definitive website on Emily Carr,
Canadian author and artist. Contains hundreds of images of her life and work, including a
virtual tour of her childhood home, and teaching aids for students and teachers interested
in Emily Carr.">
<meta name="keywords" content="Emily Carr, painting, drawing, writing,
sketches, sketching, home, Canadian, Canada, artist, art, Victoria, author, family,
photograph, British Columbia, CDC, life, work, images, education, heritage, teaching aids,
France, learning">
</HEAD> |
|
2. |
Site
Look and Feel |
2.1. |
Each site will make
use of the 'Digital Leaf' icon to link the site visually to the entire Canada's Digital
Collections website. The leaf icon should be hyperlinked to the Canada's Digital
Collections homepage (http://collections.ic.gc.ca). |
2.2. |
The icon must be placed
on the site homepage. The «Digital Leaf» icon may be used on every site page, if so desired. |
2.3. |
A toolbar should be
developed for use on every Web page with textual content. Navigation buttons should
include «Home», «Language» (if needed) and «Feedback.» |
2.4. |
Web sites using
frames should make external links open a new browser window. In general, use of external links by all web sites should
be kept to a minimum because they must be maintained.. |
2.5. |
CDC encourages the
use of new technologies. Use of innovative but user friendly styles and layouts will give your web site a professional look and feel. An
HTML version of the web site should also be provided to make it accessible to
all viewers. |
2.6. |
Should any Web site
require extended plug-ins or applications, these must be made easily accessible to users
via a link and the instructions necessary to enable them to browse the collection with ease. |
2.7. |
Monthly statistics (total
number of page requests) will be available for all collections hosted on the CDC server.
Web sites may make use of a counter if more detailed statistical information is desired. |
2.8. |
If a feedback form is
used, it must be maintained with valid e-mail address. |
|
3. |
Page
Content |
3.1. |
Use of relative path
for links within the site is required. |
3.2. |
Each page should have
an appropriate title within <TITLE> tags. |
3.3. |
The author's name and
e-mail address should be included within <COMMENT> tags located at the top of each page. |
3.4. |
Web pages will not
exceed 4 screens in length (approximately 100 lines) or 1 screen of width (under a
resolution of 800x600). Usage of internal linking (targets) for long pages to make them
more user-friendly is recommended. |
3.5. |
Web pages will be no
more than 75 kB to 100 kB in size. |
3.6. |
All text elements of
the site must be consistent in look and feel: page layout, font face and size, page backgrounds. |
3.7. |
Special attention
must be paid to spelling, punctuation, accents (in HTML), grammar and
style. A thorough edit of the site must be conducted. Consult the bibliography
of Canadian dictionaries and editing guides for a list of aids to Canadian writing practice. |
|
4. |
Credit,
Copyright and Disclaimers |
4.1. |
The following credit
line shall be placed on every site homepage: «This digital collection was produced under
contract to Canada's Digital Collections program, Industry Canada.» |
4.2. |
A page for credit to
Industry Canada and the content provider will be linked from the homepage. A discrete link
to a page profiling the development team should also be placed on the credit page. Please
refrain from using personal e-mail addresses. |
4.3. |
A page containing
detailed copyright protection information and any pertinent disclaimers will also be
linked to the homepage, if necessary. |
|
5. |
Graphics |
5.1. |
The largest size that an image may
be digitized and stored for archival purposes is 1,000 x 1,000 pixels and/or 3.0 MB, unless
otherwise approved by Industry Canada. |
5.2. |
For Internet
applications, scanned images should be saved in JPEG format. Original artwork (e.g.,
logos, buttons) should be saved in GIF format. |
5.3. |
Each Internet graphic
should conform to one of three levels of file sizes defined as follows: |
|
- Thumbnail and Button: Up to 10 kB
- Standard: Between 20 - 50 kB
- Detailed: Between 75 - 100 kB (maximum)
|
5.4. |
The Internet graphics
should not exceed the following dimensions: |
|
- Thumbnail and Button: 70 x 70 pixels
- Standard: 300 x 300 pixels
- Detailed: 500 x 500 pixels (maximum)
|
5.5. |
All scanned images 30
kB or larger for use on the Internet will have a caption which includes file size in kilobytes (kB). |
5.6. |
All Internet graphics
will make use of descriptive <ALT> tags. |
|
6. |
Development
Server |
6.1. |
All development teams will be required
to use the Canada's Digital Collections server as their Web
development server. The CDC Technical Support Group will grant
limited access FTP accounts to each team. |
6.2. |
Development teams shall update their
Digital Collections web site with their new or revised files on a weekly basis once their contract begins. |
6.3. |
Development teams should send a weekly
report to the CDC Technical Support Group regarding the status of the project. |
6.4. |
The Digital
Collections Web development site will be the only site used for final project sign-off by
the content provider, the CDC Technical Support Group and Industry Canada. |
6.5. |
All sites should be
cross-platforms compliant; i.e. effectively working under the most common browsers
(Netscape 4.0 and up and Internet Explorer 4.01 and up) in conjunction with the most
common operating Systems (Windows and McOS).
Where this is not possible a disclaimer such as "This site is best viewed
with..." must be included on the homepage. |
6.6. |
Teams that want to
use server-side running applications and databases should get prior approval of the CDC
Technical Support Group. Also, the use of pages requiring processing by the server such as
ASP should be restricted to a relatively small portion of the collection. |
6.7. |
If it is determined that a web
site will be hosted on a server other than CDC's, the contractor will at minimum be
required to transfer the homepage to the CDC server, and the viewer will then be
redirected from the homepage to the outside CDC location. The contractor will be required
to provide CDC with monthly statistics (page requests) for that site. |
6.8. |
A copy of the web site should be
saved in a safe and portable data storage format such as CD-ROM or a set of diskettes and
easily accessible. |
|