Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? The Evolution of the Academic Library Web Site

Little, Geoffrey

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2012.02.005

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Chen et al (2009) examined 113 academic libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to find out what Web usability Policies/Standards/Guidelines (PSGs) are established by the libraries and how they impact usability practice; the analysis indicates that having PSGs does not affect the amount of usability testing performed by the library. Little (2012) considered the issue of academic library website development since the first attempt to create an online presence. He states that what web designers wanted to promote in 2012 frequently did not differ much from what was promoted in the late 1990s, for instance, the library’s catalogue, news and events, opening hours, help for the researchers, including reference and instruction, locations, as well as support for the students and faculty (Little, 2012: 123).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Little (2012) considered the issue of academic library website development since the first attempt to create an online presence. He states that what web designers wanted to promote in 2012 frequently did not differ much from what was promoted in the late 1990s, for instance, the library’s catalogue, news and events, opening hours, help for the researchers, including reference and instruction, locations, as well as support for the students and faculty (Little, 2012: 123). The fact that the functions and the mission of the libraries have not changed much in the last decade is one of the reasons why in many cases the library staff do not see any necessity to change the websites’ design.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Academic library website functions in the context of users’ information needs

Mierzecka

Šuminas

2016

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

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The digital revolution has had a particular impact on the functioning of libraries: it has changed both the means of communicating with the users, and the nature of the service itself. In the case of academic libraries, an online presence is crucial due to the increased rate of Internet usage among their stakeholders, academics and students alike. From their perspective, library websites serve as digital gates to library services and resources. However, an academic library website may fulfil a wide array of functions and their importance can be variously prioritized. The purpose of our research was to find out which functions of academic library websites are viewed as the most important by a selected group of users: the students. To answer this question, we identified the main functions of academic library websites on the basis of desk research and designed a survey conducted among students of the University of Warsaw (Poland) and Vilnius University (Lithuania) ( n=680). The picture of users’ information needs with regard to content of the academic library website revealed by our research allows us to draw conclusions about the functions of the academic library website distinctive from those already mentioned in the subject literature. From the perspective of a user-centric approach we distinguished five functions of the academic library website: (1) supporting the usage of the collection (online and traditional); (2) promotion of culture; (3) gateway for locating information on the Web; (4) education; (5) creation of library’s online image.

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Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic library website functions in the context of users’ information needs

Mierzecka

Šuminas

2016

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

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“…At an institutional level this has meant the development and implementation of next‐generation catalogs and discovery layers, offering users a single point of access to previously disparate collections and databases, and supplementing basic search functionality and collection metadata with additional features and content, such as faceted browsing, tags, reviews, and recommendations (Ballard & Blaine, ; Breeding, ). However, despite these attempts to realign library services with users' expectations, numerous studies still show the web as the starting point for many information seekers (Connaway, ; Kitalong, Hoeppner, & Scharf, ; Little, ). Integrating institutional library collections with popular web‐scale discovery tools, particularly search engines, remains an ongoing and important challenge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Users and uses of a global union catalog: A mixed‐methods study of WorldCat.org

Wakeling

Clough

Connaway

et al. 2017

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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This paper presents the first large-scale investigation of the users and uses of WorldCat.org, the world's largest bibliographic database and global union catalog. Using a mixed-methods approach involving focus group interviews with 120 participants, an online survey with 2,918 responses, and an analysis of transaction logs of approximately 15 million sessions from WorldCat.org, the study provides a new understanding of the context for global union catalog use. We find that WorldCat.org is accessed by a diverse population, with the three primary user groups being librarians, students, and academics. Use of the system is found to fall within three broad types of work-task (professional, academic, and leisure), and we also present an emergent taxonomy of search tasks that encompass known-item, unknownitem, and institutional information searches. Our results support the notion that union catalogs are primarily used for known-item searches, although the volume of traffic to WorldCat.org means that unknown-item searches nonetheless represent an estimated 250,000 sessions per month. Search engine referrals account for almost half of all traffic, but although WorldCat.org effectively connects users referred from institutional library catalogs to other libraries holding a sought item, users arriving from a search engine are less likely to connect to a library.

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“…Library website has been part of the user's journey to library resources for years (Little, 2012). These websites provide a connection to the collections and a general picture of their purpose and role within a larger organization (Lewin & Passonneau, 2012).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geospatial Data Collection Policies, Technology and Open Source in Websites of Academic Libraries Worldwide

Vardakosta

Kapidakis

2016

The Journal of Academic Librarianship

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The proliferation of geospatial data demands the engagement of information organizations, such as academic libraries, for their management and diffusion. The purpose of this paper is to reveal issues related to the development of geospatial collections and explore their efficient use as required by the current information environment. Thus, a research conducted on 363 websites of academic libraries worldwide and 136 websites maintaining geospatial collections were identified. The research questions were formed based on international bibliography and we applied a content analysis method for data extraction. Findings show a significant activity of academic libraries in providing GIS services in accordance with high rates in user education programs, creating the use of geospatial collection and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services more effective. Nevertheless, through their websites we obtained poor response to communicate geospatial collections policies. The majority of the academic libraries surveyed in this study provide commercial software to their users for managing data on a local level, while the minority of library patrons are able to use geospatial data via remote access. This paper explores aspects of development in geospatial collections in academic libraries that have not been adequately raised. Additionally, we provide an overview of geospatial collections worldwide.

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Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? The Evolution of the Academic Library Web Site

Cited by 13 publications

References 4 publications

Academic library website functions in the context of users’ information needs

Academic library website functions in the context of users’ information needs

Users and uses of a global union catalog: A mixed‐methods study of WorldCat.org

Geospatial Data Collection Policies, Technology and Open Source in Websites of Academic Libraries Worldwide

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