Annotated Bibliography

Post date: May 24, 2013 1:47:09 PM

BROBST, JOHN. "Evaluating The Accessibility Of Florida's Public Library Home Pages." Libri: International Journal Of Libraries & Information Services 59.2 (2009): 88-103. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 May 2013.

The accessibility level of the websites studied in Florida is a lot lower than it should be. This is probably due to a lack of funding or lack of capabilities to improve accessibility at the smaller libraries. Larger libraries tend to have more funding to keep their websites up to date and accessible to all.

Harms, Marie. Phone interview. 22 May 2013.

My interview with Marie Harms was very helpful. As the Library Consultant for the State Library of Iowa, she advises librarians on what content would be good to put on a website, how to put a website together, and how to keep it up to date with all of the things that the public is going to need to see. She was very helpful and most of the things that she said were very similar to points that were made in my sources, so it was good to see that the articles I’d found were matching up with what was being taught by the State Library of Iowa.

Hildebrand, Ian. "Service Please! Rethinking Public Library Web Sites." Library Review 52.6 (2003): 268-277. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 23 May 2013.

This article would be interesting to look at again this summer. It tells about how there are so many libraries who just update the basics onto their website, without actually trying to do anything above that. If anything, the goal with having a library website should be akin to having an online community that interacts with each other as well as the website. This article suggests possible ways that could be done with the right staffing and the right materials.

Kanazawa, Midori, and Yukiko Maruyama. "An Evaluation Of Public Library Websites: Describing Children's Services In Japan." Public Library Quarterly 27.4 (2008): 291-310. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 May 2013.

This report shows that in order for children to properly be able to read a library website, the font has to be at least size 12, similar to that of a children’s picture book. Other things that help are if the text is over a solid background that clearly contrasts with the black text and if clickable words are made obviously different from the rest of the text. Children use card catalogs just as much as adults, so it is important that they be able to read it properly.

Noruzi, Alireza. "The Web Impact Factor: A Critical Review." Electronic Library 24.4 (2006): 490-500.Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 23 May 2013.

This was a source that I used in order to understand the language of "Evaluation Of Central Libraries' Websites Of Universities In Iran From A Marketing Viewpoint." It talks about the Web Impact Factor, and so I did some research to find out what that actually was. This article was recommended as one of the best for explaining it and I can now say that it is a way to judge the quality of a something to be published on the web in terms of how much of an impact it will have.

Powers, Bonnie S. "Oh,What A Tangled Web We Weave! An Evaluation Of Pennsylvania's Public Library Websites For A Basic Level Of Web Presence And Beyond." Current Studies In Librarianship 31.1 (2011): 21-35. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 23 May 2013.

The appendix to this report was the single most useful thing that I was able to find after Marie’s interview. I had not looked at the appendix previously and when I did I immediately printed it off because the appendix was the check-off list of factors that this study had used to evaluate their websites. It was handy to use when comparing the websites, although I did notice that Iowa’s websites, the nine that I chose at least, do a good job of covering at least all of the basics that should be required within a website. The study was done to cover all of the library websites in Pennsylvania to see if they had an active web presence because their physical locations are having trouble financially and the librarians would like to at least be able to keep an active presence in Pennsylvania communities via the web.

Silva, Novljan, and žumer Maja. "Web Pages Of Slovenian Public Libraries: Evaluation And Guidelines."Journal Of Documentation 60.1 (2004): 62-76. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 May 2013.

The appendix that goes with this article was also one of the most helpful things that I was able to find. Rather than just listing their criteria, each item on their list was explained as to how it should appear in order to fully be counted as adequate. This was another thing that was printed off immediately, as I found it just after the other one. They found that most Slovakian library websites seem very basic and beginner and wish to change that by having the qualifications suggested in their appendix in order to make the library websites more functional to the public.

Tang, Rong, and Mike Thelwall. "A Hyperlink Analysis Of U.S. Public And Academic Libraries' Web Sites."Library Quarterly 78.4 (2008): 419-435. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 16 May 2013.

One of the biggest things to come out of this study was the fact that public libraries tend not to link to their local university libraries. This makes it seem like there is very little cooperation between the two, when by joining they can help a larger amount of people, especially since larger libraries tend to have more outsourcing hyperlinks for databases. The study also suggests that public libraries should try to have more hyperlinks for outside websites or sources.

Yazdi, Fahimeh Ahmadian, and N.J. Deshpande. "Evaluation Of Selected Library Associations' Web Sites." Aslib Proceedings 65.2 (2013): 92-108. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 16 May 2013.

This study has research for 71 library association websites, but I found it helpful anyway when applied to public libraries. The main points were that they don’t have enough FAQ pages and that they need more external links. This is something that applied to public libraries as well because it draws attention to the library when patrons know that they can go to the library website in order to retrieve that link. FAQ pages would be helpful specifically on larger library’s websites.

Ziaei, Soraya, and Fatemeh Nooshinfard. "Evaluation Of Central Libraries' Websites Of Universities In Iran From A Marketing Viewpoint." Libri: International Journal Of Libraries & Information Services 62.3 (2012): 276-290. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 May 2013.

The difference between governmentally funded and non-governmentally funded websites in Iran is that the more well funded a library is, the more information it has on their website. A more well-funded site includes more contact information, electronic posts, relevant information, instructions on how to use the website, software, and more links. All of these are things that make up a great library website, which is why this is a good argument for why libraries need more funding.