evaluation of library web presence of technical …konnur, p v and others3 while studied the...
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International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201) Volume 5, Issue 1, February 2019
www.ijnglt.com Page 1
Evaluation of library web presence of technical colleges of West
Bengal through content analysis
AnanyaDasGupta
(corresponding author)
Asst. Librarian, Institute of Leadership Entrepreneurship and Development, Kolkata.
Email: [email protected],
Ph: 9836280277/9433310518
Meghamala Gupta
Asst. Librarian, Institute of Leadership Entrepreneurship and Development, Kolkata.
Email: [email protected],
Ph: 8622879454
Abstract
Website of an academic institute can be considered as the face of institute in modern days. Library
being the main pillar in supporting the teaching learning of academic institute it should be given its
due importance. Keeping that in view this paper tries to find out the presence of libraries in the
website of respective colleges under Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology
(MAKAUT), West Bengal. Based on the literature review of the studies done on this subject area,
41criteria under 8 broad headings were selected to analyze the content of the Web Pages. A web
based exhaustive study of the selected websites of the colleges was done. The collected data was then
analyzed using Microsoft excel. From the observation, it is found that the libraries of colleges under
MAKAUT have minimal representation in their parent websites. Based on the findings some
suggestions have been made for the improvement of the library Web Page. Focusing on web
appearance, a lot of work needs to be done. The problem can’t be resolved without a change in
attitude about the role of library and information science in higher education. Library professionals
of those institutes should come forward to change the scenario and take their libraries to the next
level.
Keywords: Library webpage, Content analysis, Web content, MAKAUT
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Introduction
For any organization, its website represents as an open window for the world to its product and
services. The same is true for academic institutions also. In this era of information knowledge
explosion, the survival of any organization depends on its adaptation and flexibility to the changing
needs of the society. The institutions should know the needs and demands of their clients. The current
generation is used to the internet since they were born. Thus for their information needs, their first
choice is web. The website of any institution plays an important medium of public relation. Also it is
a fact that quality of the library and its services is considered as an eminent facet for judging the
quality of the institution. “It is no longer about which library provides the largest collection, but about
which library can provide their community with the best means to access the material they need,
regardless of location. Libraries can increase visibility at the global scale and accessibility to services
at the wider scale by using the new web scale library management facility.” Hence these websites
should adequately represent their library and its resource. This study is an attempt to analyze the
representation of the libraries in their parent organization’s websites.
MaulanaAbulKalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT), West Bengal was established in
the year 2001 as a sequel to the promulgation of the Act in 2001, under West Bengal Act XV of 2000
passed by the West Bengal Legislature. The University is steadfast in its twin objectives to serve as a
centre of excellence in teaching and research in technology and management area and providing a
framework of industrialization based on knowledge economy. The University aims to create high-
caliber professionals with global standards.
Objective
The main objective of this paper is to analyze the content of the websites of the colleges under
MAKAUT with respect to their library page. More specifically the study aims to:
Ascertain how and to what extent the websites of the colleges provide the information about
their respective libraries.
Analyse the content of the library webpages in accordance with the criteria determined for the
study.
Rank the colleges on the basis of analysis.
Suggest measures for improvement of library webpage of the college websites.
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Literature review
In recent times many studies are being done on library websites. A brief review of the available
related literature is made here. The review is chronologically represented since 2009 onwards.
Kumar and others(2009)1conducted a study on six IIMs. A checklist was designed to analyze the
content of the websites. After analyzing it was found that all the websites provide information on
mission statement, working hours, rules and regulations, books and journals collection. Except IIM-B
others have provided OPAC link through their sites. All of them gave information regarding e-
journals, databases, non-book materials, CDs and video cassettes.
In 2010, Archana, S. N and Kabir, S Humayoon2 conducted a study on engineering colleges affiliated
to university of Kerala. From their analysis it was found that majority of the websites did not fulfill
50% of the 25 criteria selected for analysis. Out of 62 colleges, only 5-10% provided information
about digital resources or OPAC.
Konnur, P V and others3 while studied the academic library websites of five institutions of Bangalore
city, they identified five factors which should be incorporated in a comprehensive resourceful library
websites. Those are:(1) about library resources, services and facilities (2) access to subscribed e-
journals, online databases through website (3) links to other useful online resources (4) access to web
based references sources (5) computerized library housekeeping operations. Their study revealed that
there was a lack of organization of information in the study websites and thus is lagging behind in
exploiting the full potential of a library portal.
Shukla and Tripathi4 developed a 108 points scale parameters to evaluate the website content
awareness of Central University of India and Institute of National Importance. They constructed a
questionnaire and scores were allotted. On the basis of scoring points they developed and calculated
Overall Website Performance Calculation (OWPC) and Criteria-wise Website Performance
Calculation (CWPC). From the study they found that Institute of National Importance share much
more information than Central University library. But not a single library from both the list could
achieve the status of ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ in case of content awareness.
In 2011, Kalra and Verma5attempted to analyse the library websites of some selected research
institutes of India both qualitatively and quantitatively on the basis of Web Impact Factor, pre-defined
check-list of indicators, and online questionnaire survey. The study revealed several inconsistencies
and terminological issues. Many methodologies are in use globally which are not used in India. The
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study led to certain important issues for quality improvements in context of usability and usefulness.
The quantitative study did not lead to any conclusive finding. It was concluded that there is need for
standardization of evaluation indicators under ‘usability’ and ‘usefulness’ at both indicative and
illustrative level.
In 2013 Pareek and Gupta6 conducted a survey on content of academic libraries of Rajasthan
including universities, deemed universities, self-financed institutions and research institutes. For 52
library websites, most provided good accessibility and general information about the library.
However very few provided links to their OPAC or digital resources.
Verma and Devi 7did a content analysis survey on seven Central University Library websites of North
Eastern States of India. From their study it was found that except Assam University all other websites
provided information regarding libraries. Majority of the websites provide last date of modification.
“Ask the librarian” feature was found only in one university library website. E-journal link was
provided by all libraries. OPAC information was also available except for Manipur and Mizoram
Universities.
Savitha, K. S8 did a content analysis study of deemed university library websites of Karnataka.
Among the twelve universities they selected nine for their study purpose. From their analysis it was
found that all nine universities provide general information about their libraries in their respective
website. 89% universities gave access to OPAC facilities as well as digital library service through
their webpages. While all of them have access facility to subscribed databases.
Muhammad Abbas Ganaee9in his exploratory study on library websites of Pakistani Universities
recognized by the Higher Education Commission found that although it is assumed that private sector
put more energy to compete in the market and get more customers, but the situation in the public
library websites was far better than private universities building library websites. A significant
number of library websites found having less than three pages. More than 95% libraries are providing
access to HEC digital library but university own-subscribed digital resources are very rare. Moreover,
the uses of web 2.0 features in these universities were minimum level.
Sandeep Kumar and Mahendra Singh Mir 10in 2017 studied the content of the library websites of
Central Universities of Central Regionof India. Their study revealed all four Central Universities had
Web OPAC facility, info about digital library, database access, plagiarism check software, thesis, e-
books, and e-journals in their library pages.
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Methodology
To prepare the college list for the study help was taken from the MAKAUT website, www.wbut.ac.in.
After consulting the 2017-2018 session list an exhaustive list of all colleges was prepared. Google
search with the name of the colleges was done to find out the respective college websites. Based on
the literature review of the studies done on this subject area, 41 criteria under 8 broad headings were
selected to analyse the content of the Website / WebPages. The criteria are given in Table 1. Then
based on these criteria, a thorough web based survey of those websites was done from August 2017 to
November 2017.
Table 1
Criteria for analysis of Websites of Colleges
I
Library website/webpage
presence 1 Library has website
2 A direct page
3 A space in another heading
II Accessibility 4 Direct library link
5
Link under academics, faculties, infrastructure, resources
with the title library.
6
With the link academics/facilities/infrastructure/resources
without the title library.
7 Others
III General information 8 Introduction
9 Objectives of library
10 Working Hours
11 Collection
12 Rules and regulations
13 Staff information
14 Library committee
15 Library news/notices
16 How to use library
17 New Arrival list
18 Automation
19 Email/contact no. of library
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20 Departmental library
21 List of journals subscribed
22 Annual Statistics
IV Link to online resources 23 OPAC
24 e-Journals links
25 e-books link
26 e-database link
27 e-question paper
28 Digital library
V Value added services 29 Feedback form
30 Links to other resources or net
31 Institute route map
VI Services 32 Reading room
33 Circulation
34 Reprography
35 Internet browsing
VII Social networking tools 36 Facebook
37 Linkedin
38 Twitter
VIII Website translation option 39 English
40 Hindi
41 Bengali
Scope and Limitations
Based on the review of International and Indian literature on evaluation of library websites in terms of
Usability and Usefulness, most studies referred focused on the usability criteria selecting the general
features or contents found in the websites. This study also focuses only on the general features
established on the basis of occurrence in the selected sample websites. The design aspect which
focuses on the usefulness of the websites is excluded from this study. This study of library webpage
was done in a certain point of time. Thus there may be some changes in those websites now.
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Analysis and interpretation
Presence of Library website / webpage
Under this heading 3 criteria have been established on the presence of the library page in the parent
website. As shown in figure 1, it was found that among 155 college websites only 8% colleges
provide direct access to library tab/page from their homepage. Whereas in 54% colleges library tab is
under some other heading. In 29% college websites there is no information about library, while 8%
colleges don’t have any website at all. So for further studies those 37% colleges have been omitted
from the list as there is no scope to gather any information about them. The final analysis was done on
97 colleges and the findings are discussed below.
Figure 1 Availability of library websites
n=155
Accessibility of website
To draw the attention of users to any website it is important to see how easily they can search a
particular page and access it. As library being the most important participant in the development and
growth of an academic institution it is necessary to have very quick and easy access to library page
from the parent organizations home page. In this section there are four criteria as enumerated in
Table2. From the study it was found that out of 97 colleges only 13 colleges provide direct link to
29%
8%54%
9%
Availability of library websites
n=155
No info about library
in website
Direct link from
college website
Space in another
heading
No website
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library page from their home page. 55 colleges provide library link under academics or facilities or
infrastructure or resources with the title as ‘Library’. As can be found from the reviewing literature,
some institutes provide information about the library without the title ‘Library’ directly under some
other heading. But fortunately in case of sample colleges this was not found. Only 29 colleges provide
link under different headings like campus life, amenities, general info, departments etc.
Table 2: Accessibility of websites
Criteria Frequency Percentage
Direct Library link 13 13
Link under
academics/facilities/infrastructure/resources with the
title library 55 57
With the link
academics/facilities/infrastructure/resources without
the title library. 0 0
Others 29 30
(n=97)
General information
In general information category 15 criteria have been enumerated. Among these fields it was found
that 63 colleges i.e. 65% of the total population provide only a brief introduction about their library.
Maximum number of colleges provides information about ‘library collection’i.e.75%. 58% colleges
give details about their ‘automation status. It was observed that ‘how to use library’ or ‘new arrival’
list are provided by only 3% colleges. Not a single college provides ‘annual statistics’ of library.
Details about frequency of occurrence and percentage for other criteria are listed according to their
rank in table 3.
Table 3: General information
Rank Criteria Frequency Percentage
1 Collection 73 75
2 Introduction 63 65
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3 Automation 56 58
4 Working Hours 34 35
5 Staff information 21 22
6 Rules and regulations 15 15
7 Email/contact no. of library 12 12
8 Objectives of library 9 9
9 Departmental library 8 8
10 List of journals subscribed 7 7
11 Library committee 6 6
12 How to use library 3 3
12 New Arrival list 3 3
13 Library news/notices 1 1
14 Annual Statistics 0 0
(n=97)
Link to online library resources
In this era libraries possess e-resources through subscription or ownership. However it was found in
the survey colleges, an attempt has been made to provide general information about the library, but no
such attempt has been made with regards to digital resources. To promote the awareness about these
resources among the users, the library page in the college website is an easy medium. Links of the
subscribed online resources if available through the library page in the parent website enhances the
accessibility of these resources for the members. To find out the scenario in colleges under
MAKAUT, 6 criteria have been established and analysis was done on the basis of these. The result is
shown in table 4. In this heading it was found that frequency of providing ‘e-journal’ links is 10
among 97 colleges, which is very poor. ‘Digital library link’ , ‘OPAC link’, ‘database link’ and ‘e-
books’ link are given by 9%, 6%,4% and 1% colleges respectively.
Table 4 Link to online resources
Rank Criteria Frequency Percentage
1 E-Journals links 10 10
2 Digital library 9 9
3 OPAC 6 6
4 Database link 4 4
5 E-books link 1 1
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5 E-question paper 1 1
(n=97)
Value added services
In order to meet the present day needs of the user’s libraries can extend beyond the typical services by
providing value added services to enhance user satisfaction11. Value added services means that the
needs of the majority of the people are being met by integrating features that surpass user’s
expectations. Libraries provide links to various e-resources through the library web page making it a
one-stop solution. These can be done from the Web OPAC also. They should have online feedback
facilities so that the services offered by the library can be continuously evaluated and accordingly
changes can be done. Findings of this study are presented in Table 5.
Table 5 Value added services
Rank Criteria Frequency Percentage
1 Feedback form 2 2
1 Links to other resources or net 2 2
2 Institute route map 1 1
(n=97)
Services
Existence of a library depends upon services it provides to its users. These services are reflection of
the demands of the users. To find the kind of services provided by the colleges under MAKAUT 4
criteria commonly found in websites are given in Table 6. 36% colleges provide information
regarding their ‘reading room facilities’, 29% provide information about ‘circulation policy’, 38%
about ‘reprographic facilities’ and 32% college inform the availability of ‘internet browsing facilities’
inside library premises.
Table 6 Services
Rank Criteria Frequency Percentage
1 Reprography 36 38
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2 Reading room 35 36
3 Internet browsing 31 32
4 Circulation 28 29
(n=97)
Social networking tools
In this era, social media has a great influence on our social life. Academic libraries must explore ways
and means to utilize its huge capabilities for the advancement of library services. Jodie Bell (2014)12
in her blog in CILIP, the Library and Information Association reports that Taylor & Francis sought to
address the opportunities and challenges provided by Social media to libraries by conducting a
research with over 600 librarians with focus groups in US, UK and India. This online survey
revealed that 61% of libraries have been using social media for three years or more. Many university
and libraries provide links to their social media through the ‘Connect with us’ or ‘Ask the librarian’
tabs, example Pen State and University Libraries, Washington University Libraries, Oxford College
Library, etc. Compared to these standards the use of social networking tools in the sample libraries is
far behind. With diminishing footfalls connectivity with users is a challenge for the librarians. This
can be resolved with the help of social networking tools. Moreover librarians can use it as a marketing
tool for promoting their services. In this study only one college library is visible through ‘Facebook’
and ‘Linkedin’.
Table 7 :Social networking tools
Rank Criteria Frequency Percentage
1 Facebook 1 1
1 Linkedin 1 1
2 Twitter 0 0
(n=97)
Website translation option
Website translation modifies an existing website to make it accessible, usable and culturally suitable
to a target audience. More than 1/3 of all internet users are non-native English speakers, and
according to Forrester Research, visitors stay for twice as long (site stickiness) if the website is in
their own language. India being a multi lingual and multicultural population, libraries should give this
feature its due importance. However from the analysis done this feature was available only in one
college website.
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Table 8: Website translation option
Rank Criteria Frequency Percentage
1 English 96 100
2 Hindi 1 1
2 Bengali 1 1
(n=97)
Ranking of colleges
Based on the analysis the ranking of 97 colleges have been done. Form that list of top 20 colleges
have been shown in the following table.
Table 9: Ranking of colleges
Rank Name of the college Points scored
1 Omdayal Group of Institutions 19
2 Narula Institute of Technology 17
2 iLEAD (Institute of Leadership Entrepreneurship and
Development) 17
3 Academy of Technology 15
3 JIS College of Engineering 15
3 NetajiSubhash Engineering College 15
4 Birbhum Institute of Engineering & Technology 14
5 Heritage Institute of Technology 13
5 Pailan College of Management & Technology
[B.TECH DIVISION] 13
5 Techno India College of Technology
13
5 Mallabhum Institute of Technology 13
6 MeghnadSaha Institute of Technology
12
6 IMPS College of Engineering & Technology 12
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7 B. P. Poddar Institute of Management & Technology 11
7 Camelia Institute of Technology, Madhyamgram 11
7 Gurunanak Institute of Technology, Panihati 11
7 Sabita Devi Education Trust – Brainware Group of
Institutions 11
7 Durgapur Institute of Advanced Technology and
Management 11
8 Army Institute of Management 10
8 Eastern IILM 10
8 St. Thomas’ College of Engineering & Technology 10
8 Dr. B.C. Roy Engineering College, Durgapur 10
Conclusion& Suggestions
From the observation of the websites it is found these are developed as a routine organizational
matter, rather than a conscious process of representation of the library and its resources to its current
and prospective user community. The library professionals of these colleges should have to take
initiative to develop their respective college’s library webpage. They have to understand the needs of
the user community and accordingly provide information in the webpage and organize it properly.
This type of the study can be done on the colleges under other universities of West Bengal. Then we
can find out that if it is lethargy in part of the library professionals or the organisational environment
of these colleges which prevent the professionals to take necessary actions. Konnur and others while
studying the websites of Bangalore city in 2010 hoped that libraries at the academic institutes will
attend to the lacuna and develop soon a fully functional, interactive, dynamic content web portal with
web 2.0 and web 3.0 technologies because academic community would expect informational
professionals as one of the several professions vying for leadership in the information age to organize
and present information in a way that best fits the users attention and knowledge. But nothing has
changed much since then; analysis of colleges under MAKAUT proves that.
On the basis of the study of the college websites and subsequent analysis of the content of the library
page, some suggestions for improvement are discussed below.
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To keep the focus of the users on the library and information science centre of the
organization, it is advisable to provide a direct link in the parent organization’s website to
access the library page. This will increase the ease of usability of the library resources.
Library webpage should provide common useful links to the users to provide one-stop
solution to the user’s needs.
Librarians should disseminate information about their respective library’s resources, services
and activities through social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc. Usage of
these sites enables the library to reach many users and add value to their services, thus
increasing the impact on users.
There is a need for interdisciplinary area research. Research can be done on how web services
attract and retain their customers; and how these can be applied to Library and Information
Science Centres.
Provision like “Ask a Librarian” is totally absent which put the libraries in a back foot when
compared to international standards.
Need to conduct usability study for user oriented web pages.
Regular training for library professionals to keep them abreast about the changes in
information technology landscape.
Librarians of colleges under MAKAUT should take initiative to represent their library
properly through their parent organization’s website. Library and Information Centre plays an
important role in the development of the organization as a whole. These libraries should
ensure that the authority is aware of the importance of a well-organized and well informed
library portal. They have to balance new initiatives with the core service areas such as
instruction and collection development. In addition to responding to new trends, academic
libraries also need to anticipate future needs and to take innovative steps to connect with their
users in an effective way to stay abreast in this competitive environment.
It is also not possible for the librarians to carry out the whole project without the support of
the management of the parent organization. Thus it is important that the authority should
provide the infrastructural and financial support to build a state of art library facility. The
University can take part in guiding the organizations in development of its library as a
learning resource in the current digital environment. The education of tomorrow, teaching
pedagogies and the content of education can be redesigned with the involvement of library
and information science center to achieve a better learning experience.
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