Richard, This is a very timely subject for me, because we have been talking a great deal about our policy volumes at Cornell.
The general conclusion is that a "volume" system is basically obsolete, and remains only as a vestigial reminder of the hard copy "three-ring binders" of policies that we had before the Internet. We have found their existence sometimes confusing, and try to direct people to the "A to Z index" or to the search box in the center of our home page. The main problem with a volume system, or any static system of organization, is that many policies might logically fall into more than one of the volume categories, and people, therefore, don't know in which volume to look. By July 1, 2015, we will have designed a new policy website. We are trying to think of better ways to get people to the information they need. In addition to the "front and center" search tool, which will not go away, one of our ideas is a question box that produces a selection of answers generated from keywords in the question. This would be a similar tool to, for instance, the support pages on most software sites, such as Microsoft's. Another idea is a "How Do I" pull down menu, with, perhaps, the twenty most common things people come to us to do. Pulling down to, for instance, "How do I take time off?" will get the user immediately to the policy that deals with leaves. So I think we're going toward spending our very scarce resources on a more useful web presence, rather than any particular static organization system. But of course that's just us. This is a very interesting thread, and I am interested in everyone's priorities and opinions. Josh Joshua Adams Director, Cornell University Policy Office and DFA Communications 35 Thornwood Dr, Suite 200 Ithaca, NY 14850 t: 607.255.8279 f: 607.254.1555 w: www.policy.cornell.edu<http://www.policy.cornell.edu/> ΓΌ Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 12:03 PM To: ACUPA-L Subject: [acupa-l] Policy Organization System Standard Hello, policy wonks. Has the possibility of adopting a policy organization system standard ever been discussed? If so, what was the outcome? For example, Joshua's Cornell policies are organized into eight categories, or volumes<http://www.dfa.cornell.edu/treasurer/policyoffice/policies/volumes/index.cfm>. Michelle's UM policies are organized into either Governance or six categories of Administrative<http://policy.umn.edu/Policies/index.htm>. My institution is looking at creating/adopting a policy organization system, and would be interested to know if there is a policy organization system standard, similar to how libraries adopted one of two organization system standards<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Dewey_and_Library_of_Congress_subject_classification> for library books. I normally ask replies on the listserv be sent to me only so as to not clog everyone's inbox, but this one might be good for public discussion. Thanks for your considerations in this matter. Best regards, Rich Richard East Hampton University The information contained in this message is intended only for the recipient, and may otherwise be privileged and confidential. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, please be aware that any dissemination or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify us by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer. This footnote also confirms that this email has been scanned for all viruses by the Hampton University Center for Information Technology Enterprise Systems service. ATTN: Please be aware that when you respond to an ACUPA-L e-mail, the reply will be distributed to the ENTIRE e-listing of members. If you do NOT want to send an e-mail to everyone, please reply directly to the individual who initiated the query (their e-mail address appears in the "From" line of their original e-mail). If you wish to remove yourself from the ACUPA e-mail list, please go to this web address and fill out the form. We will remove you from the list within 24 hours during normal business hours. http://www.acupa.org/MembershipForm_Discontinue.html
