Library Web Site Assessment

Abstract

Libraries must increasingly compete as providers of information. Most, if not all, libraries now have a Web page that serves a variety of functions. Increasingly for some users the library web page may be their first introduction to a library. Furthermore, on-line use of library resources is becoming increasingly common. Accordingly an effective Web page design is essential. This chapter presents a Web page assessment tool, developed by the authors, based on a model used in the e-commerce sector. This tool was used to analyze the Web pages of libraries in the Australian Vocational Education & Training sector. The results clearly show both the strengths and weaknesses of Web pages. The lack of a standard method and guidelines for web page authoring is discussed.