Webmasters, web policies, and academic libraries: a survey

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to gauge how university libraries are currently handling web policies as well as to see if the role of the library webmaster has evolved.Design/methodology/approachA survey was created and an invitation to participate was sent to various electronic discussion lists. Most of the questions were quantitative and were coded to find trends in the responses.FindingsMost of the respondents either are reference librarians or webmasters, and they are mostly staff or faculty. As increasing numbers of resources become available electronically, university library web pages are going to continue to play an important role in academia. Survey responses indicate that most libraries (52 percent) have developed a web policy and 64 percent have formed a web advisory committee to maintain their web content. Responses also indicate the desire for further training in keeping up with the new technologies and the increased workload due to the time spent in maintaining web pages.Research limitations/implicationsActual policies could have been collected but it seemed beyond the scope of this paper.Practical implicationsDeveloping a policy or forming an advisory committee is desirable as technology becomes more sophisticated and content and resources are proliferating, as seen in the trends indicated by this survey. Therefore, the amount of the web work can be decentralized and should be shared by all parties involved in order to maintain and enhance the quality of the library's web site.Originality/valueWhile there have been many articles written about the role of webmasters in libraries, there appear to be few that deal with the policies of the library itself in regard to creating content for the web. This paper would be useful to academic librarians dealing with web policies.

Evaluating the factors of corporate website favorability: a case of UK and Russia

“…A review of the literature on the concept of the favorable corporate website showed that little systematic research has examined the effect of the components of corporate websites on consumer evaluations of these websites (Tarafdar and Zhang, 2008). Furthermore, too little study has been made of the relationship between the favorable corporate website and its antecedents and consequences (Cox and Emmott, 2007;Hendricks, 2007;Lombard and Hite, 2007;Taylor et al, 2002). Furthermore, there is lack of understanding not only of the website dimensions overall, but also in non-western countries (Alsajjan and Dennis, 2010;Cyr et al, 2008;Fan et al, 2013).…”

Strategic development of UK academic library websites: A survey of East Midlands university libraries

“…Website maintenance can be achieved by adopting a centralized or decentralized model (Wilson, 2004). Advisory committees have been seen in over 60 percent of libraries surveyed by Hendricks (2007). An earlier survey of ARL universities by Taylor (2000) reported a higher figure of 80 percent.…”

“…According to Wilson (2004), library strategy and web policy are complementary. In a survey of American libraries Hendricks (2007) found that just over half (52%) had a web policy. The purpose of a web policy is to steer website creation and maintenance.…”

“…Central to the development and maintenance of the website is the role of web developer/manager. A number of papers have reported on the skills required for this post (Connell, 2008;Hendricks, 2007;Howcroft and Carroll, 2000;Kelly, 1998). The role is often fulfilled by academic librarians (Evans, 1999;Taylor, 2000) as part of a wider remit (Connell, 2008).…”

Perceptions of information system success in the public sector

“…Understanding the role of intermediaries in delivering public sector services is key to comprehending the shift in the division of labor between government and companies (Al‐Sobhi et al , 2010). Despite the emerging transformation by external intermediaries, we take the position that webmasters still have a key role in the choices of design and implementation of new web site functionalities, while content provision is delivered by the individual public department/worker intermediaries and end‐users, for instance, through interaction via Web 2.0 (Van der Walt and Van Brakel, 2000; Hendricks, 2007). Thus, there is a need to investigate how webmasters connect internal information and service resources with the external demand from citizens.…”