An Assessment & Evaluation of

Public Library Websites in AustraliaDiane L Velasquez, PhD

Sydney, NSW

27 February 2015

1

Agenda

• Introduction

• Methodology

• Findings – Australia

• Findings – by State

• Findings, Phase 1 – Canada compared with Australia

• Conclusion

2

Introduction

• Public Library (PL) websites are the e-branch

• PL web assessment evaluations are a gap in library literature

• PL web assessment and evaluations if in literature is anecdotal

• Web sites equal presence and marketing

• Few PL evaluations:

▫ McMenemy in Scotland

▫ Powers in Pennsylvania

3

Marketing of Public Libraries

• Convenience for patrons

• Provide excellent customer service via web page

• Evaluating the web page for usability

• What makes a good public library web site?

▫ Ease of use

▫ Good information

▫ Well designed

4

Group Project• 18 Students in the four phases

• Initially 25 public library web sites each

• Given the methodology

• Asked to do a short literature review

• Worked individually instead of as a group except for Phase 3

5

Methodology

• Powers, 2011

▫ Pennsylvania project replicated

▫ Had 20 basic questions

One question was not asked

▫ Added two regarding joint use

• Included branch libraries

• Some consistency issues were apparent

6

Methodology

• Answered each category as a Yes/No question

• Used Excel to process results

• The rest of the data qualitative

• Qualitative data has not been processed

• Last Project data turned in on 7 November 2014

7

Information Gathered

• Physical & Mailing Address

• Telephone Number

• Email

• Hours of Operation

• Library Manager/Director

• Joint Use Facility – Yes/No

▫ If yes, what type?

8

Information Gathered (cont’d)

• Catalogue Link

• State Databases or other links (i.e. Trove, etc.)

• Date web page last updated

• Mixture of text and images

• Promotion of events and programs on the pages

• Search box available

• Place to provide feedback about the site

9

Information Gathered (cont’d)

• Free from spelling and grammatical errors

• A place to ask for help or assistance from the library

• Consistent logo, branding, or picture that is library specific (not council specific)

• Use of Web 2.0 tools (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Historypin, Yammer, etc.)

10

11

States Represented by PLs

1, 0%88, 18%

17, 4%

69, 14%

65, 13%44, 9%

43, 9%

161, 33%

ACT NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA

12

n = 488

Joint Use Facilities

99, 20%

389, 80%

Yes No

n = 488

13

Joint Use Facility Type

29, 29%

6, 6%

8, 8%

15, 15%

4, 4%

5, 5%

32, 33%

School TAFE University Comm Ctr Council Museums Other

n = 99

14

Top/Bottom 5 Categories

Top 5 Bottom 5

• Telephone – 85%

• Hours of Operation – 83%

• Spelling & Grammar – 82%

• Catalogue – 67%

• Text/Images – 67%

• Help – 18%

• Library Manager – 20%

• Feedback – 27%

• Date Site Updated – 30%

• Image/Icon (library) – 35%

15

Yes/No Questions

16

430 415

182

404

9958 73

306

84

389

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Address Telephone OnlineContact

Hours Lib Manager

Yes Non = 488

Yes/No Questions

17

288

328

289

146

200

160

199

342

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Email Catalogue State Dbases Site Update

Yes Non = 488

Yes/No Questions

18

325 324

200

132163 164

288

356

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Text/Image Promo Onsite Search Box Feedback

Yes Non = 488

Yes/No Questions (cont’d)

19

400

89

171

219

88

399

317

269

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Correct Spelling Ask for Help Logo Web 2.0

Yes Non = 488

20

Bottom 5 Overall by Reverse Rank

OrderNSW QLD SA TAS VIC WA

Help 1 3 3 3 2 1

Date Site Updated 2 4 3 4

Feedback 3 1 2 2 3

Library Manager 4 4 1 1 2

Online Contact 5 5 4

Search Box 2 1

Icon/Image (Library) 4 5 5

Email 4

Web 2.0 4

Databases (State) 5

21

Top 5 Overall by Rank Order

NSW QLD SA TAS VIC WA

Catalogue 1 5 5 2 5

Events 2 3

Address 3 1 1 1 1 1

Spelling & Grammar 4 4 3 3 4 4

Text/Images 5 5

Phone 2 2 1 1 2

Hours of Operation 3 4 4 3

Databases (State) 2

Web 2.0 5

22

Yes Answers

23

7772

33

7 101

53 53

25

55 54

19

44 44

26

41 41

21

152

140

56

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Address Phone Online Contact

NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA

Yes Answers

24

71

30

71

70

7

53

15 15

51

25

5042

0

3336

9

29

143

19

83

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Hrs Operation Lib Mgr Email

NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA

Yes Answers

25

86

60

19

7 51

35 35

11

43 43

8

3843

3541

2217

7881

54

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Catalogue State Dbases Onsite Data

NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA

Yes Answers

26

7579

51

7 5 2

4336

17

35

49

1

29 29 323439

33

101

78

63

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Text/Image Event Dates Search Box

NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA

Yes Answers

27

21

76

13

27

1

11

50

123

54

4

18

42

2429

37

16

49

133

18

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Feedback Spelling Help

NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA

Yes Answers

28

33

59

2 3

15

23

16

33

2725

27

36

50

42

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Icon Web 2.0

NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA

29

Bottom 5 Categories

Australia Canada

• Help – 14%

• Feedback – 18%

• Date Site Updated – 19%

• Image/Icon – 26%

• Library Manager – 32%

• Date Site Updated – 17%

• Feedback – 17%

• Image/Icon – 42%

• Help – 45%

• Catalogue – 51%

30

Top 5 Categories

Australia Canada

• Telephone – 85%

• Spelling & Grammar – 82%

• Hours of Operation – 78%

• Catalogue – 70%

• Text/Images – 67%

• Address – 98%

• Telephone – 97%

• Hours of Operation – 96%

• Spelling & Grammar – 96%

• Text/Images – 90%

31

Yes Answers

32

180 173

84

169

70

208 205

161

204

129

0

50

100

150

200

250

Address Telephone OnlineContact

Hours Lib Manager

Australia Canada

Yes Answers

33

116

151134

42

145 152169

109

151

35

190174

020406080

100120140160180200

Australia Canada

Yes Answers

34

5239

179

31

56

107

169

35

203

96 90

136

0

50

100

150

200

250

Search Box Feedback Spelling Help Icon/Image Web 2.0

Australia Canada

35

Findings - Australia

• Majority had catalogue links (67%)

• Most web sites were locked down and hard to access

• For a customer focused industry, most of the sites were basic and hinder customer service

36

Findings (cont’d)

• No encouragement of contact with patrons

• Staff names were not on the web sites

• Many of the sites were not well designed

• Not user friendly

• Sites didn’t encourage users to ask questions

37

Majority of Sites Missing

• Ability to ask for help on the site (18%)

• Feedback mechanism for the library site (27%)

• Site up to date: showing a date when it was last updated (30%)

• A library image or icon (35%)

• Search box available for the library information (41%)

• Use of Web 2.0 tools (45%).

38

Conclusions

• Websites need to be updated

• Could learn from other websites like the better Canadian and Australian websites

• Up-to-date marketing tools

• Web 2.0 Tools – more than Facebook and Twitter

• More user centric

39

Future Research

• Phase 4 has just been completed

• All Australian public libraries have been done

• Next phase will begin Phase 5 of English speaking Canadian public libraries

40

Acknowledgement of Thanks

The student researchers were:

• Andrew Angus

• Andree Brett

• Michelle Chitts

• Robin Costelloe

• Lungile Dlamini

• Daniel Easterbrook

• Fariha Hamid

• Deanna Harrison

• Catharine Kelly

• Isabella Laskari

• Zoe Manger

• Daniel Mason

• Cyprian Maynard

• Claire Morris

• Margaret Parker

• Claire Telfer

• Sarah Thompson

• Amy Vanner

• Jana Walmann

41

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