At this week’s Website Support Clinic, I spoke with somebody who was looking to use an article published on the University’s main News site. As the article’s topic was relevant to her department, she wanted to know whether or not she could simply copy and paste the content, or whether she would need to ask for permission first.

Questions on content sharing etiquette are common at the Website Support clinic; therefore, I thought it would be useful to use this post to remind people of best practice when using other people’s content within your website.

Reusable content in the Asset Store

By now, most web editors at the University will be familiar with the Asset Store – the place where all reusable content in EdWeb is stored. If you see content on a page that is not managed by your department, you can often find it in here by typing its name into the search field.

If the asset doesn’t have an obvious title – like an image, for example – you can try searching for it by using a description or a few keywords. We always encourage EdWeb users to use descriptive names when uploading new images, and sensible titles for all other assets.

Best practice for naming, tagging and sharing assets

Seeking permission

If what you are looking for is not in the Asset Store, it is most likely because it has not been made available for reuse. In this case, we would recommend that you either get in touch with the lead publisher of the site to ask for permission or source an alternative piece of content.

List of lead publishers of sites around the University

Image sources

If you are searching for new images to put on your website, the University has a number of great resources.

Guidance on sourcing images

If you have any further questions concerning content sharing in EdWeb or whom you need to contact to get permissions, please contact website.support@ed.ac.uk.