Webmaster Resources
This page is designed to contain resources and information that will be helpful for Section and SIG webmasters to use in creating and maintaining their Sections’ and SIGs’ web sites.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact the Section Council webmaster.
- Tools
- Web Guidelines/Your Responsibilities as a Section or SIG Webmaster
- Logos and Images
- Archiving and Backup (including WordPress)
- Document Sharing on MLANET
FAQ
“I got a message that I am running out of disk space — what should I do?”
Contact Chao Cheng at MLA headquarters, mlafa1@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x20. While MLA does not currently charge for additional space, disk space allocations do help them monitor the health and space on the server.
“I can use my site to store all our old newsletters as PDF files, right?”
Certainly! We do recommend that you use a PDF maker that creates the smallest file sizes possible, which can reduce file size of existing PDF files, or create files with a “fast web view” (e.g., Adobe Acrobat). Smaller PDF files enable faster loading of the files for your users and do not use as much of your disk space or server resources.
“We have a new web editor for our MLA-hosted site — what should I do?”
Please contact Kate Corcoran (corcoran@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x12) or Chao Cheng (mlafa1@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x20) at MLA headquarters. Indicate whether you want the password to cPanel or your email list(s) changed and provide a contact email. You may also need to update the default address information on your cPanel site to reflect the change and update the site with the current web editor’s contact information. You should also notify the Section Council webmaster.
You are also expected to subscribe to the Section and SIG webmasters’ mailing list. Please make sure that you are subscribed and that your email address is correct. This list is used to communicate policy changes and requirements for Section websites.
“MLA does all our backups for us, so I don’t have to, is that right?”
MLA does not back up your specific site — they back up the cPanel server so that in the case of a server failure or if they need to move sites to a new server, all accounts can be restored. You are responsible for backing up your individual Section or SIG website. See the options we recommend in the Archiving and Backup section of this document.
“Does MLA have a survey tool like Zoomerang or Survey Monkey that Sections or SIG’s can use?”
No. Sections or SIG’s who wish to use a survey tool should investigate free options like Google Docs forms or subscribe to a survey tool of their choice.
“We just moved our main website to a blog in another directory. Is there any way to automatically redirect all web entries to this location?”
Absolutely! Use the steps on our WordPress Redirects page to permanently redirect all traffic from (for example) sectionname.mlanet.org to sectionname.mlanet.org/blog/.
Have other questions? Please let us know! Address your questions to the Section Council webmaster or to MLA headquarters staff: Chao Cheng, mlafa1@mlahq.org, or Kate Corcoran, corcoran@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x20 or x12.