Social Media Community Guidelines

These guidelines relate to all social media channels run by the Durham University Library and Collections Department and are in place to help create a safe and understanding environment for our social media communities.

Our aim is to use our social media channels to encourage engagement with our online communities while creating an environment where they feel safe to comment, discuss, make suggestions and raise questions.

To help us create this safe environment across our social media channels, we have developed these guidelines to ensure anyone engaging with us online is considerate, understanding, kind and respectful when engaging with us or other members of our online community to ensure a positive experience for all.

By engaging with our social media channels, you are agreeing to follow the guidelines set out below:

• Do not post any hateful, defamatory, obscene, deceitful, offensive, threatening, abusive, inflammatory, discriminatory or harassing comments, images or videos, or promote sexually explicit material or violence. Do not post anything that could be deemed offensive to others in any way.
• You must not promote discrimination based on background, race, nationality, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation or educational attainment.
• Avoid posting anything that is not your original creative content or that you do not have a lawful right to post, such as infringed branded logos, graphics, copyrighted text, images or videos.
• Do not post anything that contains spam, advertising or promotion of any services.
• Your comments must not be off-topic, irrelevant or incoherent.
• You must not breach any of the terms and conditions set out by the social media platforms themselves.
• Do not post any personal information; you must ensure you always protect your privacy.

Breach of guidelines

We monitor and review all our social media channels on a regular basis and reserve the right to determine whether contributions breach the guidelines set out above, at our discretion.

We reserve the right to hide or delete comments, as well as block any users who do not follow our social media guidelines.

Know what to expect

We monitor our social media accounts regularly throughout the working week and aim to respond to all enquiries as quickly as possible. However, if your query is urgent and requires an immediate response, please contact us through our live chat service or by emailing library@durham.ac.uk.

If you would like to provide us with any feedback, you can contact us by library@durham.ac.uk.

Last updated: June 2021