ARL Library Catalog Department Web Sites

Abstract

User-friendly and content-rich Web sites are indispensable for any knowledge-based organization. Web site evaluation studies point to ways to improve the efficiency and usability of Web sites. Library catalog or technical services department Web sites have proliferated in the past few years, but there is no systematic and accepted method that evaluates the performance of these Web sites. An earlier study by Mundle, Zhao, and Bangalore evaluated catalog department Web sites within the consortium of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) libraries, proposed a model to assess these Web sites, and recommended desirable features for them. The present study was undertaken to test the model further and to assess the recommended features. The study evaluated the catalog department Web sites of Association of Research Libraries members. It validated the model proposed, and confirmed the use of the performance index (PI) as an objective measure to assess the usability or workability of a catalog department Web site. The model advocates using a PI of1.5 as the benchmark for catalog department Web site evaluation by employing the study tool and scoring method suggested in this paper