Identifying the location of web objects : A study of library websites

Vasantha Raju N.Librarian Govt. First Grade College Periyapatna vasanthrz@gmail.com

&

Dr. N.S. Harinarayana ReaderDepartment o f Library and Information Science University of Mysore Mysore ns.harinarayana@gmail.com

8th International CALIBER on Towards Building a Knowledge Society: Library as Catalyst for Knowledge Discovery & Knowledge

March 02-04 2011 Goa

University Taeigao, Goa

“Library Website is the Library” -Linden

“an essential ingredient in constructing the content of a website is knowing the typical users' mental model or 'schema' for the

characteristic location of web objects on a website. Knowledge of this schema and constructing a site that reflects

this should aid in the site's accessibility (Bernard 2001).

Research Questions

• Where do library web objects placed in the library web sites?

• Does the library web object appear in same location as in the case of e-commerce websites?

The Location of following web objects were examined in library websites

Web Objects Definitions about us About us feature usually provide information regarding respective

organizations. A kind of a self introduction.

my account/user account

My account is an online book checking inquiry system. User instead of visiting physical library, he can check his book issue status online.

help Instructions or advice on how to use a specific type of service/option on library web sites.

search link/box Help the user locate information available at sites on the World Wide Web.

link to back home Links to home page from secondary level pages from web site. User can jump easily from secondary level paged to homepage while navigating web sites.

OPAC A database composed of bibliographic records describing the books and other materials owned/subscribed by the library, accessible via public terminals.

ask a librarian An online reference service wherein user get answer for his queries via e-mail, phone, IM or online form.

Methodology

• 75 World top university library websites were considered for the study as a data sample (World Top University Rankings 2008).

• The location of the each of the web object was noted down in a 5 X 5 data coding sheet designed for the study.

• The data for the study was collected from June 2nd to June 15th 2009.

5 x 5 Horizontal and Vertical Grid Data Coding Sheet

Name of the Library: ____________________________URL: ____________________________Name of the University: ____________________________Country: ____________________________Date of data collection: ____________________________Time: ________________________________

Schematic presentation of the web page in 5 X 5 grids

Figure 1: Each Grid (color) Represents the Frequency of Web Object Found in Particular Location in a Library Web Sites*

The darker the shade of the blue, the greater the number of times that the particular web object was found in the particular location.

<1% 1-2 3-4 5-8 9-16 17-24 25-32 33>%

* This method is adopted from Shaikh & Lenz (2006)

Location of the “About Us” Web object

8.57% 8.57%

15.71% 15.71%

11.42% 5.71%

It was found that almost 30.00% (15.71% and 11.42%) of the library web sites have placed “about us” link at the upper left side of the web sites.

Location of the “My Account” Web object

11.11%

7.40% 7.40% 7.40%

5.55% 16.66%

12.96%

The placements of “my account” feature various across web sites, but tended towards extreme right side of the library web sites (16.66%) and the upper right side (11.11%) of the library websites as shown in figure .

Location of the “Search Link/Box” web object

8.22% 45.21%

5.48% 6.85%

6.85% 5.48%

Almost 50.00% of the sites placed search link/box feature at the top right corner of the library web sites. This result resembles the previous studies on e-commerce websites (2006).

Location of the “Back to Home Link” web object

52.78% 12.50% 9.72% 6.94%

9.72%

It was found that almost 53.00% of the web sites have placed “back to home link” at the top left corner of the library web sites. The result is in line with previous studies on web objects (Bernard, 2000, 2002; Shaikh & Lenz, 2006; Adkisson, 2002).

Location of the “Help” Web object

14.00% 6.00% 5.56%

6.00% 12.00%

12.00% 6.00%

6.00% 6.00%

The placement of the help function is varied from library to library, but in most cases, it tended towards upper top of the library web sites.

Location of the “OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog)” web object

5.48%

16.44% 17.81% 12.33% 5.48%

6.85% 13.70%

The placement of the this feature varied across library web sites, with great number of sites placing OPAC at the top left side and middle of the library web sites (13.70%).

Location of the “Ask a Librarian” web object

14.28%

5.53% 10.71% 8.92%

5.53% 5.53% 7.14%

8.92% 5.53% 5.53%

       

The placement of ask a librarian feature is scattered/varied from library to library. Most of the libraries placed ask a librarian feature at the right side of the library web sites.

Home link & logo

Search

OPACAbout Us Help

My Account

Ask us

Internal links

Help

This website wireframe was created on the basis of the consolidated result of the study

Library Website Wireframe

Thank You

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Image courtesy : OCLC