Social Media Policy

Main Public Channels

Purpose and Philosophy

This social media policy defines best practices for maintaining the Kennedy Library’s social media outlets, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

All social media activities are driven by our purpose statement: to promote open and informed inquiry, foster collaboration and innovation, support the unique needs of every student and scholar at Cal Poly, and contribute to the cultural life of San Luis Obispo. We emphasize social media outreach that creates equity in access to resources and showcases underrepresented voices.

Library social media activities reflect our mission and values, including information access, knowledge creation and discovery, cultural preservation, service, and fostering a learning environment that supports inquiry, critical thinking, and a diversity of perspectives in a respectful and civil context. In general, posts to social media will include information related to the library’s services, collections, spaces, or patrons. The overarching goal of the Kennedy Library’s social media is to increase reach and interaction with current, past, and potential library users.

The library’s social media sites are not intended to be traditional public forums for the general exchange of ideas and viewpoints, but a limited public forum for discussing Library programs, events and materials. The library does not make its social media accounts available for general public discourse, but rather reserves and limits the topics that may be discussed on social media accounts.

Publicizing Content from the University and/or the Community

Outside groups including campus departments, student groups, or community groups may request that the Kennedy Library publicize something for them via the library’s social media channels. Non-commercial publicity related to Cal Poly students, staff, or faculty is acceptable; commercial publicity is not accepted unless it is something supported by a Cal Poly program.

Rules for Online Behavior on Social Media

The Kennedy Library will not post items or comments that are obscene, racist, derogatory, or similarly objectionable in their content:

  • Personal attacks, insults, or threatening language
  • Potentially libelous statements
  • Plagiarized copyrighted material
  • Commercial promotions or spam (adapted under a CC-BY-NC-SA license from CSUSM Library)

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