Smith College: Publications Office


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POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Our office produces several hundred publications a year, dozens of which are in production at any given time. Most publications are on annual schedules; we produce others (such as NewsSmith) more often. We take on new projects when possible, but any new publications must not disrupt the projects we're already committed to producing.

Our publications range from brochures and booklets to large-scale projects such as the admission viewbook and the course catalogue. Some are funded by the Publications Office's annual budget while others are paid for by other offices and departments on campus. We have no "discretionary fund" for projects not in our budget.

The focus of our publications program is external (off-campus) college relations. In general, we are more likely to produce your publications if their intended audience is off campus (for instance, prospective students) rather than on campus.

Our office can provide any or all of these services on most projects: writing, copy editing, design and layout, photography, proofreading and printing. If our workload does not permit us to take on a particular project, we can suggest freelance professionals with whom you can negotiate directly about the cost, schedule and quality of your publication.

Types of publications we can produce:


	brochures

	calendars

	admission application forms

	college course catalogue and student handbook

	admission marketing materials for prospective students

	posters for major college-wide events (such as Rally Day)

We cannot:


	produce programs, invitations and other announcements for one-time events (contact Central Services instead)

	print course syllabi or materials for classes or projects

	handle your orders for stationery or business cards (contact Purchasing instead)

	design posters for most events

	maintain or monitor accuracy of material on the college's Web pages (except for the general and admission sections)

	help other offices create Web sites (contact Information Technology Services instead -- they can refer you to students who will design pages for a fee)

My, what a big display you have.

All of our publications are produced on a networked Macintosh design system, running Mac OS X and using software packages like Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. (The pages you're reading were created by using Adobe Dreamweaver.) We're proud of the fact that we were the first office at Smith to adopt the Macintosh platform, and we were one of the first colleges to move to a totally computer-based design process. What this means for you is that you will see, early on in the approval process, a rough layout of your brochure that is very close to what you will actually receive from the printer--often with photos and illustrations already in place. It also means we might ask you to meet with us in the publications office so you can view your publication, in color, on our displays.

Publications
Production,
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