Webmasters, web policies, and academic libraries: a survey

Date13 March 2007
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/07378830710735911
Published date13 March 2007
Pages136-146
AuthorArthur Hendricks
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Library & information science
Webmasters, web policies, and
academic libraries: a survey
Arthur Hendricks
Branford Price Millar Library, Portland State University,
Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The 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/approach – A 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.
Findings – Most 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/implications – Actual policies could have been collected but it seemed
beyond the scope of this paper.
Practical implications – Developing 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/value – While 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.
Keywords Internet, Academiclibraries
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
While 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 reports the results of a survey of academic
librarians, particularly webmasters, who were asked about their library’s web policies.
The goal of the survey was to gather information on how academic libraries deal with
web site policy. Who develops the web policy? Are webmasters responsible for
designing the web site as well as creating the content? Answers to these questions
could help libraries develop their own web policies.
Literature review
The library webmaster is a relatively new position, as compared to that of reference
librarian or serials cataloger. The web phenomenon really started a little over a decade
ago. Although libraries were quick to adopt this new technology, the web pages that
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
LHT
25,1
136
Received 16 August 2006
Revised 18 October 2006
Accepted 1 November 2006
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 25 No. 1, 2007
pp. 136-146
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830710735911

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