Video summary
The video features a discussion among legal content managers from various organizations across the United States, focusing on the strategies and challenges of curating external resources for their websites. The participants introduce themselves and share how their respective groups handle linking to outside information, ranging from simple form links with brief descriptions to more integrated approaches that provide context before directing users elsewhere. A central theme is balancing the need to fill content gaps by referencing authoritative sources while avoiding overwhelming visitors with too many options or outdated information. Many speakers note that they prioritize internal writing for high-priority topics but rely on curation when dealing with federal laws, tools, or issues where recreating content would be redundant.
Karen Heredia from Law Help New York provides a detailed overview of her organization's approach to distinguishing between full articles and link summaries. She explains that while nearly all their written content is developed internally, they frequently use curated links for specific subjects like housing assistance for people with HIV/AIDS or federal benefit programs. When deciding whether to write an article or create a summary linking out, the team considers factors such as reliability of the source, plain language accessibility, and URL stability. They generally avoid ad-funded sites, forums, and certain government websites that may change frequently without notice, preferring local legal aid partners when possible. For unavoidable links to unstable federal pages, they implement warning banners to alert users about potential changes or inaccuracies.
Practical considerations like link rot, content volatility, and accessibility play significant roles in the group's decision-making process. The speakers discuss methods for verifying that external links remain active and up-to-date, including using tools like the Wayback Machine when original URLs break due to government redesigns. Accessibility best practices are also emphasized, such as embedding descriptive text within hyperlinks instead of generic phrases like "click here," ensuring screen readers can effectively navigate content. The group agrees on an 80/20 rule where they focus resources on common scenarios and link out for edge cases rather than creating exhaustive guides for every possible situation. Additionally, there is a nuanced conversation about PDFs; while often avoided due to difficulty in tracking updates, they are accepted when necessary if the source is trusted and clearly framed as detailed reference material.
The session concludes with participants reflecting on key takeaways regarding content lifecycle management and future improvements. Several managers express interest in refining their curation processes by implementing regular review schedules based on subject matter expert input or contracting services to monitor external changes automatically. There is also a desire to right-size website content, potentially reducing clutter while maintaining comprehensive coverage of legal issues relevant to low-income individuals. The group plans to reconvene later in the summer to explore these topics further, with an emphasis on creating more structured and user-friendly resources that empower self-represented litigants without relying solely on external links or outdated materials.
Read the full video transcript
Hello all,
welcome. Um, welcome to our legal
content managers discussion group.
That's always a bit of a mouthful. Um,
while we are just getting underway.
Oh, I was going to ask people to um Oh,
let's put just a warm-up in the chat. Um
so maybe into the chat um maybe where
you are geographically and how the
summer has been treating you so far
sentence or so
and then we're going to get underway in
just a minute or two as people are
joining us. Um
summer has been hot. Yes. Um, yes, I'm
in um mid coast Maine and it has been
actually generally nice. Um, but was uh
hot in the the east coast. Hot. Um, and
then we'll actually do some um unless we
get a huge group, which I can't imagine
we we don't typically get enormous
group, we'll do some verbal
introductions in just a minute or two.
Hello to all. I see um uh many familiar
faces and one or two new ones. So very
excited for both of those things. Um let
us get underway with um uh some quick
introduction. So our topic today is uh
curation. So the idea that as you know
content managers um often uh we are
writing or working with authors to write
content for our own websites but there's
also the possibility of pulling in
um links or andor descriptions and links
or something like that to other
articles. So either federal articles or
other um articles from other partners in
the state, local jurisdictions, things
like that. Um so we are doing a deep
dive on that today. Would love to hear
from you and I'm going to um just do a
bit of a roundroin. I will do what I've
done before is I'll call on um somebody
and then say who's on deck just because
I'm doing it in the order that I can see
people and that's not necessarily
something that anybody else can see. Um,
so if you could talk a little bit, um,
so maybe just a your name, I'm also
typing this in the chat. Um, what
organization you're with, and how you do
curation if you do, how you do curation
if you do. Um, Karen, Pin is going to be
um, talking in more depth today about
what they're doing, but do you want to
just kick us off with a little bit of a
introduction while other people think
about this? Yeah. Hi everyone. Good
afternoon. I'm Karen Heredia. I am Law
Help New York um Law Help New York's and
Scale Justice uh content manager. Fun
fact, it's my first official day. I've
been working on um Law Help New York and
other legal aids for a while now, but
but uh today marks kind of the
transition into me being full-time
content management at um
>> um yeah, so I'm excited to share a
little bit. We've been working I've been
working on this site for uh two years
now on a part-time basis, but I'm very
excited to kind of move full-time into
this and kind of keep growing the
content. Um, and I will be talking about
our approach to curation, some of the
things that we think about. Um, so I
won't go into too much detail now, but
I'm excited to talk to you all.
>> Fantastic. Thank you. Um, so, oh, I
forgot to say who was on deck. Um,
Chenita, if I could impose upon you with
Emily on deck to do her intro next.
>> Uh, sure. I am Chenita Chinapple Mlullen
with Illinois Legal Aid online. So, um,
we will have form links as a a format
type, um, or direct links to other sites
and just have a little bit of
information about the organization and
the content and that's usually it. And
within our content, um, we may provide
specific links, but um, we try to
incorporate, uh, or we try to
include links, but explain a lot too
because we figure people can just go to
those links and and read. but we try and
explain it differently uh so that
there's extra context um that people can
read if they needed it.
>> Fantastic. Thank you so much. Emily with
Shelly on deck.
>> Hi, my name's Emily Ouija and I'm with
Wisconsin Law Help. I just joined in
July as a contractor for about four
months uh to uh try to get uh some more
content on the on the site and also in
regards to curation. Um just hoping to
to work a little bit on a content life
cycle process and um and look at that.
So nice to meet you all.
>> Fantastic. Thank you so much for coming.
Uh fantastic. Shelly with uh
I forgive me. Uh Angel. Angel. It's
Angel right on deck.
>> Angel.
>> Angel. Sorry about that. I know you
corrected me before.
>> Uh Shel. I'm Shelley Reed, manager of
LSNAP, and I'm not sure I completely
understand the curation aspect, so I'm
not sure if I do it. So, look forward to
more discussion.
>> Well, we'll find out. Great. Uh, Angel
uh with uh Jay on.
>> Uh yeah, Angel um with Piscal Services
in Asheville, North Carolina. Um we
really haven't done any much curation in
the past at all. I'm just really
starting to with with actually putting
together some materials for our website
this in the past year. So, what little
we have done has been my own research
that we then have um our legal experts
review and and give the thumbs up on
sources and then some of it is um just
community partners that we work with
closely.
>> Fantastic. Thank you. Um Jay with Brea
on deck.
>> Hi. Uh my name is Jay Collier. I'm with
603 Legal Aid in New Hampshire. And um
our content experts, subject experts
include links to external sources for
further information, but have all of the
core information within the content
itself.
>> Great. Uh Bria with Martha on deck. Bri,
am I saying that correctly?
>> I'm Bria. Yes. I wasn't I heard Bria
before, too. Um, and then I was when J
and I was like, "Okay, great." So, yes,
I'm with Lakes Shore Legal Aid. Um, nice
to meet everyone. Thank you so much for
having me. Um, I um I curate our um
identity site and then we channel um a
lot of the uh viewers to Michigan Legal
Help, which is our um basic legal
information portal. So we we most of our
effort aims at being strategic and not
and limiting the information we put on
there to like activities and identity
related information. We're also under um
in the process of of a big redesign. So
our current website is just kind of like
hang hanging in there until we can um
finish the redesign. So thank you.
>> Fantastic. Oh, welcome. Exciting to have
you. Um, fantastic. Um, Martha with
Betsy on deck.
>> Sure. Um, well, I'm Martha Beard Duncan,
managing attorney for Texas Law Help.
And
curation is an interesting question. Um,
although virtually all of the 1.2 two
million some odd words we have on our
website is uh developed internally. You
know most of it to be helpful does refer
to external resources as well you know
with an explanation of what that is. Uh
we have we prioritize other legal aids
uh law library stuff that's actually
going to be useful for our visitors. uh
but because we have so much stuff you
know I'm actually looking if anything to
pair down to make it more structured
uh especially in the day of AI search I
think that maybe we should take a less
is more approach so interested in what
other people have to say
>> fantastic great um Betsy and then we'll
take anybody I haven't mentioned because
I think that's everybody
>> good afternoon I'm with uh South
Carolina Legal Services and Hello Shelly
and I am the um director of private
attorney and uh community engagement
and
another hat I wear is director of u I
oversee communications and marketing
which includes somewhat our website
although we have a web master um who
wasn't able to join us but uh what the
question is I came in five minutes late
from another meeting.
>> Yes. So we're talking about curation. So
not necessarily uh information you have
uh you've written for your website but
the places in which you link out to
other people's information.
>> Yes. And that is a huge struggle for us
and one reason I started wanted to start
joining these meetings is so our law
help page and and we also someone said
they're limping along until they can get
a new website. Uh we're we're there.
We're limping as well. And um so our law
help page, the web um master and I have
worked on it for a couple of years. We
had some enormous I want to say over
4,000 resources on there that ranged
everything from how to apply for free
lunch for your kids to you know to true
legal issues. And so really trying to
get have a meeting of the minds as to
what do we want on this website? What
makes sense? What will people be coming
to our website for? If they want free
lunch for their kids, are they going to
come to us or are they going to go to
the Department of Education or somewhere
like that, you know? So, really
narrowing it down so that people aren't
they're just overwhelmed and leave the
website because there's just so much
clutter there. So, that's what and most
of those resources we're linking out to.
Some of them are our own, but a ton of
them we're linking out to other
organizations, agencies, um you know,
things like that.
>> Great. Fantastic.
>> All right. Is there anybody else who
hasn't um said a little bit about
themselves?
>> Hi. Yeah, I'm Elana. Um I joined a
little bit late as well. I'm Elana um
from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los
Angeles. she, her, and um we as far as
external links on our website um
primarily we have them as just a list of
referrals for different types of um
issues, but we are developing a new page
for um external mostly external
resources uh related to disaster. Um so
that's what I'm hoping to um get a
little of inspiration for today.
>> Fantastic. Thank you. Anybody else who
hasn't uh introduced themselves?
>> I can I can uh I don't think I've uh I
haven't gone. Laura, just hi, I'm Jane
Rabbitera with uh the legal services
corporation um with our TIG program. Um
I'm not really in charge of content
curation per se, but uh al I work with a
lot of grantees who are doing that and
building new websites. So, um I was
curious to to kind of listen and learn
so I can um share tips and and best
practices with uh with other folks who
are who are going through this. So,
>> welcome.
Oh, and I see Phil.
>> Yeah, I'm Phil Story with the Virginia
Poverty Law Center. um he him I um
mostly am responsible for our
specialized um eviction defense center
to help people who are um are fighting
potential eviction. Um and we don't mo
most of that content almost all that
content is created internally, but we do
link out to some useful resources. Um,
but I haven't um that hasn't been our
focus, but I've been um sort of looped
in with the Virginia Law um in ter as a
just as a subject matter expert with the
Virginia Law Help um site. And so I'm
I'm just kind of interested in hearing
um the approaches.
>> Fantastic.
And last but not least, I think I saw
that Lisa just joined us. Um Lisa, we're
just doing quick introductions and
talking about how you um use curated
resources on your website if you do so
um linking out to other um other sites
other and not just writing content. Hi,
I'm here mostly as an observer because
um my role with regard to content
curation has changed, but I'm very
active with our state bars access to
justice committee and the
self-represented litigant committee. So,
I just wanted to check in. I may not be
able to stay for the whole session. I'm
sorry I was running a little late. I had
something else to attend to. I wanted to
just get a sense of what the um tenor of
the discussion is because I work with
those who do exactly that who curate
content
>> in that capacity you know at the state
bar work.
>> Fantastic. Welcome.
>> Thanks for holding this session.
>> Of course. Um great. And for those of
you um who are not familiar with this
group, this is indeed a monthly um
discussion group. So, we'd love to have
uh you not just today for this great um
uh bit of a talk that Karen's going to
do and then we'll um break up into some
small groups um not only for today but
for future every third Thursday.
Fantastic. So, that was a little bit of
a preamble to let Karen get ready to uh
to talk. So Karen's going to talk just a
little bit about how they think about
this in um with Lawel New York um where
they do a lot of the site is um made up
of um links to other resources and
they've given a reasonable amount of
thought. Um she made sure to tell me in
advance they don't have all the answers
um but they have they have some
questions at least.
>> Yes. Thank you Laura. Um and thanks
everyone for sharing. I think that there
is um there's certain points that I will
also be kind of talking about that some
people have mentioned. Um and so yeah, a
little bit about LA help New York. Um
you know, we help New Yorkers learn more
about different legal rights and options
on a bunch of topics. Um if you look
through our site, I mean we have all the
topics basically. Whether how in detail
um those topics are covered is another
story. It's an ongoing process. Um, but
basically we we have we use link
summaries now for a while as a way to
definitely fill in gaps. Um, and it's a
mix of whenever a partner organization
has something, we we go through a
process to see whether it's the right
fit for us to add it onto the site. So,
I put together just some slides just to
help more than anything help me
organize. Um, so I don't just go on
about curation indefinitely. Um, let me
share my screen.
>> Oh, uh, Laura, can you give me access to
screen sharing?
>> Uh, yes,
>> I think taking care of it.
>> Okay.
For some reason, um, Zoom is not
allowing co-hosts to give other people
access. So, we'll get it straightened
out.
>> If not, it's okay. Um,
>> oh, no, we can absolutely do it. So,
give Kai just a second.
>> Oh, okay. Great.
>> All right. You uh you should be good
now.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Yeah, of course.
So, um,
so basically on law help and I tried to
put some numbers behind this because
Laura mentioned that, you know, we have
a lot of link summaries on the site. I'm
actually at this moment not entirely
sure what the balance is for us. um we
have nearly 600 um resource pages but on
the back end at least we at this moment
don't differentiate between what I call
like full articles detailed articles
versus link summaries. So this
terminology of like full articles versus
link summaries is our own internal like
labeling. Um, and for us it's mainly
like we talk about it this way because
full detailed articles, they are longer
articles. They are like basically a
one-stop shop, right? They help with the
process from start to finish. We want
all of the reader questions that we are
trying to answered
in this article. um you know we call
them guides interchangeably like they
are meant to be um a full article that
um covers the questions that we're
trying to cover. Um these are usually
written or at least co-created between
Lawel New York and partner
organizations. Um, so these full
detailed articles, they obviously just
require a lot of time, a lot more um,
uh, time with both writing and reviewing
with a subject matter expert. Um, and so
we
we define what articles we want to write
full full or detailed articles for um,
through a few different ways. I mean,
sometimes it is through either a grant
or just having partner capacity. Um,
other times it's, you know, having just
subject matter experts on staff, um, or,
uh, potentially turning what is maybe a
dense legal document into a more plain
language translation, uh, plain language
translation of that article. Um, and so
the full detailed articles on our site,
um, I can just give a quick example.
Um
so for example, how do I share this
screen now?
>> Um can you see this screen article?
>> Um and so these are all just uh uh a
full article. So someone coming here
would know how to prepare defenses for
an eviction case. Um, we have ones on
voting and so it includes a full like
basically everything that we would like
someone to know before they go to vote
or what they need to do to vote. Um, and
there's others for uh this is now in my
way. Uh, child legal care plans. And so
all of these were developed with uh
different organizations, different
lawyers and subject matter experts.
Um, on the other hand, link summaries.
These are shorter summaries and the main
purpose of these articles are to link
out to external resources. And I'll talk
next about what um criteria we look for
whenever we are preparing to link to
something else. Um, and I'll just show a
quick example of something like housing
help for people living with HIV or AIDS
in NYC. um we go a little bit into what
these programs are, but ultimately um
the the goal is to send people to these
websites
um or uh in some cases partners have
developed guides uh and so we link to
that um and I'll talk a little bit more
about what we include for these link
summaries, but so when we're deciding
between linking versus writing,
Um
well we link when I mean we can only
link if something exists. Um but
something existing is not like you know
the bare minimum. What we really are
looking for is a reliable plain language
guide um from an authoritative stable
source which I'll go into that. Um
sometimes federal national law that
doesn't vary by state. There's already
materials that exist on that. So, it's
an easy um thing with the caveat for
recent recent things. Um or it's a tool,
so something that we wouldn't recreate
anyway. Um and so we're linking out to
that. Um we are writing when certainly
no content exists and it's a high
priority issue or question.
um when we want to have more control
over the update cycle and have the
capacity to be reviewing and updating
content ourselves
um or like I mentioned when there is
existing content but it's either written
for lawyers it's just not plain language
so it needs to undergo some sort of um
transformation in order for it to be um
plain language and accessible
and for all of these I would say that
we're still following the 8020 rule. So,
we're focusing on the 80% um or most
common scenarios and for any edge cases,
that's where we are briefly mentioning
them or linking out for those edge
cases. But I would say that um every
article is addressing a common scenario
and if there are um less common things
within that topic, then we link out um
for those
So when we either get a external source
recommended to us or we're looking for
them, there's a few things that um we
are aiming for to make sure that this
source is linkw worthy. One is that it's
reliable. It's coming from a reliable
source. Um whether that's a court,
government agency, another nonprofit.
Um, we're definitely not linking to any
like adfunded sites, any forums, any
for-profit law firms. Those are all
automatically off the table. Um, the
main thing I would say with reliable
source, I mean, even within this list of
a court or a government agency website
or a a nonprofit, um, we still do have a
preference. You know, I think a lot of
the time we're definitely um especially
as a New York site, I think right now
we're we're really monitoring um federal
government changes and as a informal
practice, we are um trying to whenever
possible link to New York government
sites um or nonprofits, you know, legal
aid organizations since government
agency um government websites in general
are a bit infl flux. Um, and so that's
reliable sources. Plain language, um, is
one of the bigger priorities here on
this list, or if the biggest, um, we
want something that's written for the
public. This means grade eight reading
level or below. Uh, ideally jargon free
or at least is trying to define jargon
or be accessible. Um, and we are always
framing this as, you know, users are
usually reading these articles under
stress. They're worried. So, we try to
make sure things are scannable at least
um and will be useful obviously to
someone who's looking for for a clear
answer.
And then stable uh pages by an
organization that will likely keep the
page up. um it's likely to be updated or
reviewed or the URL is unlikely to
change. This is by far the one where we
have the least amount of control. Um I
think sometimes we know um if an
organization if a partner organization
is maybe going to go through a new
redesign
um New York court's website recently
changed all of its URLs. So that was,
you know, a big thing that we just had
to be aware of of when the timing was
for that to happen. Um, and so this
one's like a little bit more hard to
predict, but occasionally we do,
especially now with federal government
websites just changing. Um, we
prioritize those less. Um, and I'll talk
a little bit more about that. Any
questions uh before I move on? I mean,
we'll keep talking about this, but okay.
Um, so for every link summary, so just
because it's a link summary, um, it
doesn't it doesn't mean we just kind of
like copy and paste over the material
from that external resource. Um, so
we're always assuming every page needs
to orient readers, especially um, since
readers are often arriving via search.
So every article, including link
summaries, we like to have them, you
know, stand on their own. And so each
link summary, even if it's like a super
short um writeup, what we want to do is
have the problem be very clear on what
we're trying to address. So that means
useful title and intro sentence that um
just jumps right into what what the
issue is. Um and then who made the
external resource. So in order to be
credible and trustworthy, just being
upfront about where we are sending
someone.
um and expectations for what happens
when they click just because um you know
if they're getting a PDF they should
know that or a video etc.
Um, and this can sometimes I mean I
think link summaries can this can be
three sentences. Sometimes we do a bit
more. It really depends on the topic.
And also sometimes we find a external
resource that is really good maybe in
some aspects but like you know still you
kind of want to navigate to a particular
section. And so with every external
resource, we again are putting ourselves
in the shoes of our readers to try to
give as much direction without overwhelm
um in order to once they get to that
page where they should go or what they
should do. So, we also do try I mean I
occasionally we'll just add a bit more
context or I'll do a plain language
translation of something um so at least
there's some framing and context setting
on our site before readers click into
the external resource.
Um, and then some things to watch out
for, things that come have come up for
us or that we're constantly thinking
about. Um, link rot can be an issue. We
definitely need to verify live links
regularly. Um, our current um,
uh, content dashboard in in Drupal
allows for this, but I saw that I think
Jay, you shared some a tool in the chat.
Um, and so we we need to do these checks
pretty regularly um so that we can find
any dead links uh on our site. Um,
usually that process is pretty
straightforward. It, you know, doesn't
really take me a long time to hunt down
new links and things like that and just
replace them. Um, but you know, you do
need to stay on top of news and current
events. we're, you know, feeling very
much like trying to track all the
federal changes and how that affects our
articles is is a big ongoing thing. Um,
and then for all of our articles, we
have a last review date, which for our
full articles is a bit easier to stay on
top of because, you know, we don't
change that last review date unless
there was a full review of that article.
For link summaries, it's just a little
harder. Not every source organization
will have a last review date and
sometimes even those aren't the most
trustworthy. So, it's it's a bit of a
using best judgment to figure out um
what a review process looks like for
link summaries. Um
and and law help New York is actually
also going through a redesign um like so
many of you. So, I think some of these
things um we we're working to address
right now. Um but in general I'm always
tagging or you know flagging linked
resources um with like volatility ris
risk. So um I definitely worry about
some articles more than others and just
track that for myself in um in our
spreadsheet for article tracker. And
then uh I would also say one thing I'm
always aware of is just be aware of link
bloat. um we do get uh partner
organizations or just like resources
that are forwarded to us. Um and I think
for us the first thing is it has to be a
legal issue of some kind. Um I think
we've gotten a few different like I mean
I think we have we expanded our
education section recently. Um but every
now and then there's a few things where
we're like we just don't this isn't like
immediately related to the law. Um and
so we will pass over those. Um but I
think keeping in mind just the 8020 rule
of just focusing on the most common
scenarios also helps us cuz sometimes
we'll get you know a PDF uh about
something that's like very very detailed
but you know not a lot of people need
it. And so we either try to find a way
to include that topic on our site if we
don't have it already. Um
or or we do just sometimes pass on
external links if it means just not um
uh you know adding more to a topic that
might already be very full. Anyway,
um
and yeah, I think that's that's my
overview. Um,
I don't know if anyone has any questions
from that or anything else you want me
to dive deeper on.
Oh, and okay, sorry, I remembered one
other thing I was going to say. Um, is I
mentioned a little bit about the federal
government um changes and things like
that. So uh we
um we've been do so we have we went
through a lot of the articles that were
linking to US government websites um and
tried to whenever possible find
different links. Um, but for the places
where it just wasn't really possible to
do that, what we now have is this like
yellow alert at the top, um, that is
basically warning people that this US
government website might be outdated or
wrong. Um, you know, I think that this
is something that is
being talked about more, but I would say
definitely in my work with Law Help New
York, um, we've been trying to be a bit
more realistic in our language and, um,
you know, in the ways that we can to
just name the things that are happening,
um, that are affecting, you know,
benefits and different um, rights. that
people have. And so, uh, you know, we
workshop this message. And so this now
appears on any page that links out to a
like us.gov, um, website. Um, and then
we also use alerts when things are
changing, uh, or ongoing changes like
specific to, for example, TPS. Um, and
so this is a link summary. It's a bit on
the longer side because we include um
some this long list of countries, but if
you click on this, it goes to a
government website. Um and so that's
another way that we also with linking to
external langu um when it's unavoidable
and when it's something
like what is happening currently um
trying to just name things and and I
would say that that in general for our
content approach is sometimes that it is
just like these are for like benefits
you know these are complicated processes
and they're meant to be complicated to
keep people from applying like we're
getting a bit more um real with things.
And I think with link summaries, like
some of what I mentioned just about
also, even if a a resource exists
already, still giving it some context um
or helping people along when we can by
just providing um you know, reliable
information. Um and I work a lot with
different lawyers and subject matter
experts to just get that right. Um, but
I think it's it's part of the more for
me like the human side or the even like
psychology side on how um people retain
info and why plain language is so
important and um yeah, helping people
helping folks navigate this on their
own.
>> Thank you so much Karen. Um definitely
interested in questions. I have
questions of my of my own. Um, are there
particular topics that are there's good
that you found that there to be good
national resources are that that maybe
aren't so much influx that you would
like point out to people's attention of
people who haven't really considered
necessarily uh linking to national
sources before?
Um,
off the top of my head, I know that like
consumer law had a lot of different like
national
um, resources that were always very
helpful. I mean, I think even up until a
couple months ago were reliable things
and now it's just I don't know. I think
that that's why we put up that banner,
you know, because I think we we thought
like, well, some of this is plain
language, like certainly all the like
credit um
uh
credit bureau stuff and the um consumer
lawsuits and debt collectors, like there
was a lot of really good existing
language um or resources or booklets on
it. Um and yeah and so CFPB the feds are
trying to end it. So it's I think right
now a little bit if I were linking to
that I think it would be with the caveat
that like you know it's under danger and
that's why we have the um the the alert
at the top for for things like that. And
sometimes we add like a message at the
bottom of the article to say like, you
know, call your representatives, call,
you know, we include links on things
like that just
because it's, you know, if it's going
away, it's for a reason and we want to
>> Martha has a great tip that she put in
the chat. Martha, are are you willing to
unmute and just share that?
>> Sure. Um, yeah, we've obviously
encountered the same thing in Texas and
we're under like different levels of
scrutiny, too. So, I wish we could use
exactly the language you use about
federal websites, but what we do, like
if the website has moved, it's a source
that's valuable to our users and it's
still good law, uh, we'll just go to the
wayback machine, so the archive, and
grab the link from there. Um, and
sometimes we'll also create PDF versions
of the source so that we'll have it on
file. And if sometimes we even add it
like as a link that's like saved within
the back end of our website so it's
accessible that way too. So if it's good
information, there are workarounds, but
you do have to stay on top of it. But at
least Wayback Machine for now isn't
going to go away. We also sometimes link
to sources on the Cornell Legal
Information Institute website if it's a
federal law or regulation because some
of those links had a nasty habit of
breaking over the past couple years.
>> Yeah.
>> And you have to know the URL to use the
Wayback Machine and if it's been taken
down,
>> you have to navigate through.
>> Yeah. I mean, this is like if we had the
URL to begin with in an article and the
link broke. So
that's the context in which we use way
back.
>> Fantastic. Other questions for Karen or
other I know we have a lot of people
with who've done a lot of thinking on
this topic. Other kind of things to
share or um tips in this area.
Fantastic. What we're going to do next
is um a couple discussion groups ago um
uh people really enjoyed some small
group discussions. Um so we're going to
do that um uh again for so maybe about
three people in a group um with um
uh about 10 minutes to discuss um so
just to meet each other and to discuss
um sorry I'm just seeing what's going
into the uh into the chat uh if there
are questions definitely want to give
get questions to to Karen um so um about
10 minutes to talk through with your
peer to meet your peers obviously which
is a big goal of this group. Um and then
to talk through what this it feels like
this means to you um what it is that you
are thinking about curating um what it
um what you're thinking you're taking
from this and what you might do. So I am
going to break us out um if you So we
are back. Uh thank you. So I'm curious
as to whether there were any
um kind of next steps that people are
willing to share. So anything that
seemed compelling that people want to
try do think about.
>> Um I I'll just jump in and say uh Karen
gave me a great tip. Um I was talking
about um trying to flag certain articles
or content for when they should be
reviewed. And Karen was saying that if
you have a subject matter expert working
on it, it's a good thing to ask them
ahead of time like how often do you
think this content should be reviewed?
So, thank you.
>> Absolutely.
>> Fantastic. I'll just u mention that um
uh Shannita chaired actually a Texas law
help practice um if they're still doing
this of when they do the link uh
description of actually embedding quotes
um in the um
uh in the description. So kind of like
here's an important part, here's another
important part. Um Martha, is that still
something you do? Um,
well, I mean, every like we had a major
redesign that went live in 2021 and so
like every article has like a subhead on
it says this article is about blah blah
blah and then there's a smaller
introduction over the actual FAQ part of
it. So, you know, maybe Janita, is that
what you're referring to?
Yeah, I think so. or and yeah this was
previous uh there were times where it
was just um like a link and then in
quotes you know from there but that
might have been prior
>> I mean sometime sometimes we'll do that
just but yeah context is always helpful
and of course that's just also a
readability practice is
>> have descriptive hyperlinks instead of
just plopping a link there right
>> absolutely oh yeah that's definitely
worth saying um that if you're linking
out. Uh, very important to have. I just
I actually Martha, you wanted to Sorry,
I won't steal your thunder. Do you want
to just say what the accessibility
practice there is? Uh, for when you're
linking out.
>> Oh, yeah. Just I think everybody may
know at least a little about it, but
whenever you're linking to an external
source, never say click here because
obviously a screen reader is going to
not is will pick up click here and that
will be utterly useless to the person
using the screen reader. So explain what
you're linking to like embed it in the
hyperlink.
>> Fantastic.
Other things that people are interested
in thinking about moving forward with
are taking away.
I would add one um in addition to a link
going bad because um content's been
taken down um monitoring when cont that
external content has changed. One of our
concerns was with state laws and rules
and regulations the con the link stays
live but the content changes. So, we've
contracted with a company that takes our
articles, finds the um external page
that has that information, and lets us
know when that's changed. So, it prompts
a new review.
>> Great.
Um, actually, I had one question left on
my list for Karen. Let me just ask this
or other people. Um, and then we will
wrap. Um, so Karen, um, I think one of
the things you mentioned as you
mentioned, um, linking out was linking
to PDFs. Um, and I just happen to know
that Karen has strong personal feelings
about PDFs. Um, how do you balance that?
How do you decide is that one of the
things that you like might be part of
the criteria in deciding whether a link
is you're going to link to it?
>> Yeah. Um, so I the reason why I don't
like PDFs is that it's it's a lot harder
to track changes or uh I mean we always
download the PDF, upload it to our site,
but uh it's you know it's more work to
track down any new versions of that PDF,
things like that. Um, so that's part of
an informal I think process for us is
that I whenever possible try to avoid
PDFs. That said, I think a lot of
partner organizations use them and so I
feel a bit more when I feel better about
it when I can track where it's coming
from and as part of a regular review
process, we know who owns that PDF and
we have direct contacts that we can
confirm.
Um,
and sorry, Laura, what was your
question? Just PDFs in general.
>> No, just how you how you thought about
that. Um, as to Yeah. And Martha's just
put in the chat, not a first resort for
sure.
>> Yeah, exactly. Um, yeah, not a first
resort, but much more trusted when it's
from our partners where we can kind of
go directly to the source. Um, I don't
see as many like New York agencies
really. I mean there's there are very
long dense PDFs on certain topics. Um
and I would say we really only link
those and and this because that goes
against our requirement for plain
language to whatever we're linking
towards. Um, but sometimes the PDF that
explains into detail, you know, how to
apply for benefits or how to appeal a
decision, um, we'll add it even if it's
like 25 pages, you know, or something
because if if we frame it as like if you
want a detailed guide for X thing, you
know, download this. Um, so I think the
same kind of things apply for us where
it's just looking at it in the context
of that specific article um, and what
our goals are and how to help a user
understand the PDF in that situation.
>> Great. Um, thank you so much Karen um,
for sharing that and for sharing uh,
previously. Um, so as a grand wrapup, I
would love if everybody would type in
the chat just one thing they're taking
away today. Um, it's always useful for
me to know um what you're taking away
because it helps me know what you are,
you know, might get away from future
things and what we should program. Um,
I'm going to just pause for 10 seconds
to let you think and perhaps start
typing.
And do please join us. I'm going to make
you type while I'm talking. Um for our
so we are continuing to meet through the
summer. Um so our next um session will
be the third week of August. Uh and I'm
thinking that will probably be there was
a couple mentioned uh people mentioned
today talking figuring out how to
rightsize the number of articles like
should there be fewer? Should there be
more? Should you compact them a bunch
together? Should you should they be more
but shorter? Um ways to think about
that. Um I got a thumbs up from Betsy.
Um and I know both Martha and uh Januda
mentioned that. So fantastic. Um,
great. Um, please continue to put your
one takeaway into the chat. Um, and I
will hopefully see you again uh in
August or September or some session
soon.
Thanks Karen and thanks everybody.
>> Thank you.