FEATURED:

Ringling College Editorial Guidelines

WHO WE ARE

Ringling College is pre-eminent — and we are also creative, fun, avant-garde, forward-thinking, smart, flexible, adaptable, and original. We don’t talk down to our audiences; we deliver information in a way that awes and inspires.

The way we talk about the College is important, and it shapes the way our community, our supporters, and our soon-to-be friends understand who we are and what we do.

IDENTIFYING THE COLLEGE NAME
The first reference to Ringling College should always use the entire name, “Ringling College of Art and Design.” (Except for legal documents for which the legal name is Ringling College of Art and Design, Inc.)

Any subsequent references to the College can be “Ringling College” and “the College.”

When followed by a descriptor, such as “students” or “faculty,” the College can be referred to as just “Ringling.” For example, “Ringling students” or “Ringling faculty.”

In graphics and design elements, “Ringling College of Art + Design” is acceptable.

This rule also extends to Sarasota Art Museum

The fist reference should always be: “Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design”

Any subsequent references to the Museum can be “Sarasota Art Museum” and “the Museum.”

NEVER USE:
RCAD acronym
“Ringling” (without being followed by “students,” “faculty,” “graduates,” “alumni,” or some other word that indicates it is the College and not another Ringling entity such as The Ringling Museum)
Ringling College of Art & Design (no ampersand)
This applies to majors as well: Business of Art and Design / Photography and Imaging

+ vs. & vs. and
The + sign should only be used in the logo
The preference whenever possible and always in body copy, is to write out ‘and’ i.e. Business of Art and Design; Ringling College of Art and Design
Exceptions have been made for design/space purposes, i.e. Photography & Imaging

IDENTIFYING THE PRESIDENT’S NAME
The first reference to Dr. Thompson should always be: “Dr. Larry R. Thompson, president of Ringling College” (or Ringling College of Art and Design if it has not been named previously).

Or “President of Ringling College of Art and Design Dr. Larry R. Thompson”

Subsequent references can then be “Dr. Thompson.”

Credits at the end of articles or columns written by Dr. Thompson:
Dr. Larry R. Thompson is President of Ringling College of Art and Design.

WRITING PROFESSIONAL TITLES
When written in sentence form, professional titles should be upper case BEFORE someone’s name and lower case AFTER someone’s name.

“Please welcome the President of Ringling College Dr. Larry R. Thompson.”

“Please welcome Dr. Larry R. Thompson, president of Ringling College.”

Exception: when used in listed form, titles CAN be capitalized AFTER the name: Dr. Larry R. Thompson, President of Ringling College

DEPARTMENTS

We generally capitalize departments on campus and the ‘Heads’ of each department when used as their title before their name:

“Computer Animation Department Head Jim McCampbell…”

But if this comes AFTER their name: “Kathleen Sobr is the department head of the
Business of Art and Design major at Ringling College.”

Majors should always be capitalized.

IDENTIFYING FACILITIES AND BUILDINGS ON CAMPUS
The following are the official titles/spellings of campus facilities. Underneath each facility are the official names of the spaces that are housed in that facility:

Alfred R. Goldstein Library (do not capitalize “the” before it)
Shorthand: Goldstein Library

(The word “the” should be lower case if added prior to any below.)

    • Roberta’s Café
    • Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center
    • Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation Academic Resource Center (shorthand: Barancik Academic Resource Center)
    • Ringling College Library Association Research Collection
    • Jan Schmidt Terrace
    • Cheryl Loeffler Service Point
    • Dolores Steinecke and Thomas J. Savage Learning Commons
    • Annamae Houston Sandegren Lobby
    • Barbara & Sanford Orkin Lecture Hall (shorthand: Orkin Lecture Hall)
    • Robert and Emilie Kimbrough Terrace
    • The Harry Sudakoff Foundation Project Work Room
    • Herman & Sharon Frankel Quiet Seating
    • The Frank E. Duckwall Foundation, Inc. Terrace
    • Bob & Beverly Bartner Director of Library Services Office
    • Gulf Coast Community Foundation Plaza

Larry R. Thompson Academic Center
Shorthand: Thompson Academic Center

Morganroth Auditorium in the Larry R. Thompson Academic Center

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Ringling College
Shorthand: OLLI or OLLI at Ringling College
*OLLI is located at Sarasota Art Museum on the Ringling College Museum Campus

Richard and Barbara Basch Visual Arts Center
Shorthand: Basch Visual Arts Center
     Lois and David Stulberg Gallery
     Shorthand: the Stulberg Gallery

Ringling College Continuing Studies *currently in the process of rebranding
Shorthand: Continuing Studies
Englewood Art Center
Shorthand: EAC

Ringling College Museum Campus
Shorthand: the Museum Campus

Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design
Subsequent mentions:
Sarasota Art Museum
Shorthand: the Museum
*We try and avoid using SAM in formal copy, unless referring to the Studios @ SAM (or something else branded as “SAM”)

Ringling College PreCollege Program and Teen Concentrations
Shorthand: PreCollege and Teen Concentrations

Ringling College Studio Labs
Shorthand: Ringling College Studio Labs
Related: “post-production” is hyphenated (just like pre-production)
Soundstage A / Soundstage B (soundstage is written as one word and capitalized if referring to a particular soundstage) 

 

IDENTIFYING ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS

  • Office of Academic Affairs
  • Office for Advancement
  • Office of Admissions
  • Office of Business Affairs
  • Office of Human Resources
  • Office of Marketing and Communications
  • Office of the President
  • Office of Student Life
  • PreCollege
  • Sarasota Art Museum

IDENTIFYING ALUMNI NAMES
In the first reference to an alumni/graduate, we indicate the major and graduation year in this format: name ‘XX, major. For example, “Patrick Osborne ’03, Computer Animation”

NECESSARY CREDITS
INDEX (Industry Experience at Ringling College)
In references to the INDEX program/projects, always include the language: “Ringling College and The Patterson Foundation partnered in 2012 with the shared goal to strengthen the creative workforce of tomorrow. INDEX continues the legacy of this partnership by aggregating the myriad experiential learning opportunities the College has long offered.

Sarasota Art Museum images and artists’ works: always check credits are written properly for all SAM images of galleries/exhibitions and/or of artists’ works.

IDENTITY
The terms “Black,” “Native,” and “Indigenous,” should be capitalized inline with other ethnic terms like “Asian-American” and “Latino” that have always been capitalized.

Retain lowercase treatment for “white.” While there is an obvious question of parallelism, there has been no comparable movement toward widespread adoption of a new style for “white,” and there is less of a sense that “white” describes a shared culture and history. Moreover, hate groups and white supremacists have long favored the uppercase style, which in itself is reason to avoid it.

The term “brown” as a racial or ethnic description should also generally remain lowercase and should be used with care. “Brown” has been used to describe such a disparate range of people — Latin, Indigenous, Asian, Middle Eastern — that the meaning is often unclear to readers. A more specific description is generally best.
Both “Black” and “white” should normally be used as adjectives, not nouns. Take care to avoid implying that “white” is the default (for example, by noting the race of a Black person in a story but not specifying the race of others).

THE WORD: PRE-EMINENT
The word “pre-eminent” or “pre-eminence” should include the hyphen.

THE WORD: RESUME
The word “resume” should be written without any accents.

STYLE
When in doubt, refer to AP style. We stick to it pretty closely, with a few exceptions:

  • Lowercase the seasons (spring, fall, winter, summer) – UNLESS referring to a specific semester, such as Fall 2019 or Spring 2020.
  • am/pm: lower case, no periods, one space. For example: 1 pm, 1 am
  • use of the Oxford comma (this is the serial comma that comes before “and.” For example, “Ringling College is known for  its extraordinary students, alumni, and faculty.”
  • titles of longer works (books, movies, paintings, exhibitions, video game titles, etc.) should be italicized

ITALICS

  • Title of Work: artwork, film
  • Title of Exhibition
  • Name of Book, Magazine, Game Titles
  • Name of Series
  • Podcast Title, “Name of Episode”
  • “Name of Chapter or Article”
  • Name of Publisher

PUNCTUATION

POSSESSIVE APOSTROPHE

  • Singular common nouns ending in S: Add ’s; the virus’s reach, the witness’s answer.
  • Plural common nouns ending in S: Add s’; students’, the parents’
  • Singular proper names ending in S: Use only an apostrophe; Achilles’ heel, Dickens’ novels, Kansas’ schools.


HYPHEN vs. DASH
Hyphen “-”: joins compound words or to form a single idea using two or more words. Use when helpful, don’t use when it adds to confusion. Use for date and time range. Do not add space on either side.

Em dash “—” or dash: signal abrupt change; set off a series within a phrase. Add a space on either side.

En dash “–”: (the one in between hyphen and em dash) do not use.

QUESTIONS?
This is a living, breathing document and things change. And, as living, breathing human beings, we may miss things. So, if you have a question that isn’t answered here, feel free to contact the Editorial Director. Bonus points for pointing out an error. It just makes us that much better. Thanks for reading! 

Contact

Marketing and Communications
2700 North Tamiami Trail
Sarasota, FL 34234
communications@ringling.edu

Staff

Co-Interim Director of Library Services

941-359-7582

Pat Mizak

Co-Interim Director of Library Services

941-309-4055

Alexandra Vargas-Minor

Digital Curation and Special Collections Librarian

941-359-7583

Janelle Rebel

Technical Services Librarian

941-359-7586

Janet Thomas

Instructional Design Librarian

Vacant

Instructional Design Librarian

Vacant

Library Technician III (Cataloging and Metadata Assistant)

941-359-7631

Lisa Martinez

Library Technician II (Periodicals and Interlibrary Loan)

Vacant

Library Technician III (Circulation Manager)

941-359-7587

Tim DeForest

Library Technician III (Acquisitions Manager/Office Support)

941-359-7584

Yolanda Coleman

Library Technician II (Assistant Circulation Manager)

941-359-7587

Christina Song

Circulation Assistant

Jean Ferderber

Circulation Assistant Sooyeon Baek
Circulation Assistant James Harrison

Borrowing

Patron Type # of Items Type of Material Borrowing Time
Student 40 Books 3 weeks
CDs and CD-ROMs 3 days
DVDs and Blu-Ray 3 days
Magazines (unbound) 3 day
Magazines/Annuals (bound) 5 days
Videogames* 7 days
Faculty and Staff 40 Books 6 weeks
CDs and CD-ROMs 3 days
DVDs and Blu-Ray 7 days
Magazines (unbound) 3 day
Magazines/Annuals (bound) 5 days
Videogames* 7 days
Trustee, Alumni, Cross College Alliance, and  15 Books 3 weeks
Ringling College LibraryAssociation Members CDs and CD-ROMs 3 days
DVDs and Blu-Ray 3 days
Magazines (unbound) 3 day
Magazines/Annuals (bound) 5 days
Videogames* N/A
PreCollege 5 Books 3 weeks
CDs and CD-ROMs 3 days
DVDs and Blu-Ray 3 days
Magazines (unbound) 3 day
Magazines/Annuals (bound) 5 days
Videogames* N/A
Local Teacher 15 Books 3 weeks
CDs and CD-ROMs 3 days
DVDs and Blu-Ray 3 days
Magazines (unbound) 3 day
Magazines/Annuals (bound) 5 days
Videogames* N/A
Chartwell’s and Follett employees located at Ringling 15 Books 3 weeks
CDs and CD-ROMs 3 days
DVDs and Blu-Ray 3 days
Magazines (unbound) 3 day
Magazines/Annuals (bound) 5 days
Videogames* N/A
*The video game collection supports the research and teaching of the Game Art & Design program. Video games may not be checked out by Alumni, Ringling College Library Association members or Family members.

Spaces

The Alfred R. Goldstein Library features a wide variety of quiet, group study, and work process spaces. Looking for a quiet study area? Make your way up to the 3rd floor to look for a book in the Research Collection or peruse the new art magazines while relaxing in comfortable seating. When the weather is nice, you can take your coffee from Roberta’s Café on the first floor to one of the four terraces to work outside and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. Looking for meeting space to get together with a group? Check out the group study rooms, which are available on all three floors of the Goldstein Library. The 10 group study rooms are available to students on a first-come first served basis, or available for booking by Ringling College faculty and staff for group and class meetings.

Library Hours

Library Services Hours (when classes are in session):

Sunday: 12:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Monday – Thursday: 8:00 am – 11:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday: 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Holidays and Breaks:
The Library is closed on holidays, as designated by the institution, and typically operates on a Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm schedule during breaks.

Ringling College ID Access Only

Please note a Ringling College ID is required for access, except from 8:30am – 4:30pm from Monday – Friday.

Hours for the Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center:

By appointment only from Monday – Friday 9:30 am – 4:30 pm, no drop-ins. Closed Saturday and Sunday.

Contact specialcollections@c.ringling.edu to schedule an appointment.

Visit Us

Ringling College of Art + Design
Alfred R. Goldstein Library
2700 N. Tamiami Trail
Sarasota, FL 34234-5895

Download a campus map

Suggest a Purchase: Library Acquisitions Request

We welcome recommendations for new library materials from the Ringling College community. Librarians will consider all requests bearing in mind their appropriateness for the collections and the current budget.
(*=Required Field)

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Text us: 941-208-4542
Email us: research@ringling.edu
Call us: (941) 359-7587

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Schedule an appointment with one of our librarians or a research consultant.