Journal of Information Management

Libraries are playing an important role in supporting and disseminating information services through their websites. A study of these websites will help to identify the content available on them so that the evaluation may help improve the existing sites to provide rich and relevant information to the library users. For content analysis of university library websites, a checklist was prepared for data collection. The checklist comprised of general information, nature of links, collection, services, social networking sites, and application of web 2.0 technology and so on. The investigator selected 13 university library websites for the study on the basis of content available on the websites.

The study revealed that majority of the university library websites in India provides informative link to contacts, news and events. The libraries should present different contact information (librarians, technical experts, circulation desk, digital services etc.) on their websites. A few websites provide opportunity for user interaction in the form of feedback. A few library websites provide links to mission statement, location, sitemap, and library tour. A good number of the libraries provide the library hours, library rules and membership. These are very useful features for quick access of pages. About fifty percent of the libraries provide some information of their history on their websites.

The use of graphics on academic library websites attracts and motivates library patrons to enter the site and examine its content. Another important aspect to be considered is the currency which includes the uploading date which should be mentioned on the library websites to make the users aware of the currency regarding the material they are using for their research and other purposes.