RAILS Community: Operational Guidelines

RAILS has established RAILS Community as a platform for online discussion forums, to enable members who share the same staff position or work-related area of interest to communicate and collaborate with each other. Through RAILS Community, members can engage in discussions via email lists and view/search discussions on the RAILS website.

Click here for instructions about participating in RAILS Community forums.

The following are operational guidelines for RAILS Community:

• Discussion forums are open to all RAILS members throughout the entire RAILS service area. If participation in a specific forum is restricted to Library Directors, then all RAILS Library Directors would be eligible to join that forum.
• RAILS will establish forums based on broad-based subject areas, rather than very specialized areas where there will be a small number of participants.
• Forums are added to RAILS Community at RAILS' discretion.
• Requests to add a new forum, for a subject area not covered under any existing forum, may be submitted to communications [at] railslibraries [dot] info.
• A member who proposes a new forum must provide a brief description of the proposed forum and volunteer to serve as forum coordinator (to monitor discussions to ensure they stay on topic, to help recruit new people to the forum, and to foster discussion).
• If the proposed forum subject falls under an already existing forum, RAILS will suggest that the existing forum be used.
• Forums are not moderated, but RAILS may delete abusive or defamatory content from archived messages.
• RAILS may discontinue a forum due to a long period of inactivity. Members who are signed up as participants in a discontinued forum will be advised about possible alternative forums that may be related to the discontinued subject area.