ACRL/RBMS Website

GUIDE: Procedures for Checking and Updating RBMS Website Links

This guide provides procedures for RBMS committees, task forces, and other subgroups to check the validity of links on the RBMS.INFO webpages under their purview and, when needed, to request link updates from the Web Team. The Web Team recommends that committee chairs assign this task to a committee member who will check webpage links once or twice a year to insure continued accuracy of the content provided by the committee.

1. Install LinkChecker Plug-in

The RBMS Web Team recommends installing the following Firefox LinkChecker plug-in: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/532. Once you install LinkChecker, restart Firefox and you’re ready to begin.

2. Check Links

Select “Check Page Links” in the Tools menu. LinkChecker will highlight all of the links on the current webpage: Links highlighted in green are good, valid links. Links highlighted in red are broken. (Those links highlighted in yellow are forbidden or forwarded and those in grey were skipped, which happens when a link is nonstandard or is to an email address. LinkChecker developer Kevin Freitas provides more support for this plug-in at http://www.kevinfreitas.net/extensions/linkchecker/.)

3. Update Links

For the broken links (highlighted in red), determine to what content the broken link was attempting to connect and find the correct/updated link to that content.

4. Request Updates from Web Team

Once you have a list of broken links and the correct/updated links to replace them, send an update request to editor@rbms.info. Please format your request in the following way, which will assist the Web Team in updating the links efficiently and accurately:

On [webpage URL], the following links need updating:

A member of the Web Team will send you an email once the links have been updated.

Please let us know if you have questions.

 

Last updated 16 March 2010