4.1 Guidelines for publishing

How valuable is the work?

Consider first the benefits to teachers of our publishing the work:

What is the overall quality of the work? Is the pedagogy reliable and appropriate? Is the written style engaging and highly readable?
How complete is the work? If a lesson plan, are activities and assessments fully explained? If a best practice, are examples and details sufficient that a teacher could implement the strategies explained? If an informational article, does it cover the subject well and thoroughly, or would teachers need to supplement with other works? Are permissions secured for all content? If not, does the lack of that content significantly alter the value of the overall work?
How innovative is it, compared to materials already available to teachers? If not innovative at all, there is probably no point in publishing it. If highly innovative, are teachers supported sufficiently to implement the strategy, plan, or technique?
Does it take advantage of its placement on the web?
Can the success or value of the work be demonstrated in some way? If a lesson plan, has it been taught? Can the author demonstrate (qualitatively or informally) its success? If a best practice, how does the author know it worked? Is it supported by research, either academic or classroom-based?
How relevant is it to North Carolina classrooms and curricula? Will teachers be able to use it “out of the box,” or must they adapt it?

None of these factors is by itself a reason for rejecting a work, but they should be weighed against its value to teachers.

How much editing will the work require?
Does it have special formatting needs, or is it plain text?
Are there media associated with the work? If so, do we have all necessary permissions and metadata, or must permissions be secured and/or metadata developed?
Does the work rely heavily on links to external resources that will have to be maintained?
Will the work in other ways require additional labor for publication and/or maintenance?

If the work is already available on the web…

How usable is it in its present format and location? Is it a web page, or must it be downloaded as PDF? If a web page, does it have a (easily accessible) static URL that can be linked to and bookmarked, or must it be accessed through a search?
If the work is a lesson plan and available as a web page via static URL, it should probably be catalogued rather than republished.
For other works, consider their value to the collection (as above) but with higher standards. The work of publishing must be justified by the marginal benefit to teachers of having the work available on our site as opposed to its original format.