Living Library Federica Campus Virtuale Policy document

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Bertha Bryan
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1 Living Library Federica Campus Virtuale Policy document P.O. FESR Asse V, O.O. 5.1 e-government ed e-inclusion - Progetto: Campus Virtuale

2 1. Mission of the Living Library 2. Selection of the web sites 3. Evaluation process 4. Less networked countries 2

3 Policy document 1. Mission of the Living Library Federica - Campus Virtuale The main mission of the Living Library, congruent with that of the Federica project - Campus Virtuale, is that of promoting and supporting the knowledge worldwide, particularly by favouring scholars and students of less advantaged countries to fill the gap with the others. Living Library aims at providing the latter, and also the whole researchers and students community, a useful tool for online research in the mare magnum of the World Wide Web, the Internet and the proliferation of websites and online resources. In particular, information about the nature, quantity and retrievability of the content, the ease of access and use and the fee policy of each site is provided. By selecting a limited - though still big - number of websites providing resources and material for scientific knowledge, Living Library aims at being an authoritative guide for scholars, students and others who need to conduct online research. 2. Selection of web sites Websites have been classified by the type of resources they mainly provide. These categories are: E-guides; Access services; Data banks; Institutions; Thematic sites; E-learning; in their turn subdivided, where necessary, into several and more precise subcategories (all described in detail in the Tutorial pages). Each website has been collocated in only one (sub)category specifying when its nature is not exclusively focused on one type of record, so that there is no site-overlapping. The selection of the website consists in two steps. The first step is a primary consideration of the website according to criteria of authoritativeness of the authors, richness of information, academic or professional knowledge as for content-provision. Second, a detailed evaluation is made (see following), whose ultimate inclusion criterion is a quality threshold: the website must get a fair rating of at least three points. Websites which do not get this rating are not selected for inclusion in the Living Library. 3

4 3. Guidelines to evaluation process The evaluation of a scientific site has been conceived in three sections: Content, Access, Use with a non-skilled user-oriented perspective. It is in fact assumed that a large part of the students and researchers community is still not fully skilled with the internet and the web. Helping these users is also part of our mission. Content relates to the kind of material the user finds in a website, the format in which the site provides this material (i.e., full-text, abstract level, etc.), to its quality and quantity; Access relates to the openness of access of a website: if it is cost-free and openly accessible or if any kind of fees or affiliation is needed in order to retrieve the material; Use relates to the ease and speed of use and orientation through the web pages. For each section, a set of items representing appropriate variables to indicate the related concepts has been chosen. Of course, each item should be conceptually related to the category dealt with. The section Content has been evaluated according to: Selection indicates who operates the selection of the provided material in the website. Amateur: people familiar with the discipline, who operate individually; Professional: Small organizations, without academic affiliation; Corporate: Large professional organizations; Public: Large public institutions without academic affiliation; Scholarly: Large institutions/networks with professional and academic expertise. Format indicates the format in which the material is retrievable, in case of full access. List: only a set of records is provided; Annotation: listed records are clickable and limited additional info is available (length, language, missing parts, etc.); Abstract: a summary with the basic content of the record is readable; Partial text: original text of the record is only partially available (generally in its initial part); Full text: original record is fully available. Info density is the quantity of material provided on the website. Poor: not sufficient to conduct research; Sufficient: the minimum needed to be able to retrieve some information and material for research; Fair: adequate research is possible with the provided information; Good: research at a satisfactory level of depth and variety can be conducted; Excellent: information density level allows complete, rich and in-depth scientific research. 4

5 Content pertinence to discipline (evaluation will regards each discipline in the living library) means the degree of closeness of the provided material of the website to the discipline. Poor: almost no relevance of the content to the discipline; Sufficient: minimal relevance to classify the site as an interesting one for discipline; Fair: not all the material concerns the discipline but the part which does is useful and pertinent; Good: almost all provided material is relevant to the discipline; Excellent: all records are fully pertinent and discipline focused. Frequency of updating shows how often is the website updated with new records and material. Scarcely: the website is no longer updated or the updating is done less than once a year; Rarely: updated once or twice a year; Sometimes: updated every 3 or 4 months; Often: updated with a frequency between two weeks and two months; Very often: less than two weeks from the last updating. The section Access has been conceptually represented through the items: Fees and charges indicates the presence of a fee policy for the use and access of the website. Institutional affiliation: users must be part of an official institution or organization to be allowed to access the website and its features; Individual affiliation: users must pay a website subscription and become members to access it; Free + affiliation: access is allowed up to a certain level, then a subscription is required; Free + pay: access is allowed up to a certain level, then a pay per view or a form of fee is required; Free: the website is fully accessible for free. Free retrieved material indicates the format in which the records available for free are retrievable. List: only a set of records is readable; Annotation: listed records with limited further information; Abstract: summary with the basic content of the record; Partial text: original text of the record only partially available (generally in its initial part); Full text: original record is fully available. 5

6 Linking richness shows the level of development of the type of linking, both internal (increases the number of content units) and external (link to external related resources): Poor: not sufficient to conduct research; Sufficient: the minimum needed to be able to retrieve some information and material for research; Fair: adequate browsing is possible with the provided information; Good: research at a satisfactory level of depth and variety can be conducted; Excellent: rich and in-depth browsing possibility. The section Use has been operationalized by the following items: Level of interactivity means the degree to which interaction between users and website is possible. Browsing: only web page browsing is possible; Searching: some search features are also available; Inquiring: some advanced search feasibilities and personalization tools are also available; Downloading: full-text in various digital formats can be downloaded; Authoring: possibility of transactional interactions as well as users providing content. Searchability indicates how the search option can be conducted on the website. Only browsing: the website is only browsable and no direct search is possible; By keywords: simple search option through the filling in of a keyword; By subjects headings: search is possible also by successive specification by subjects, sub-discipline, topic or subsections of the website; By multiple keys: several search criteria are allowed with a good level of refining; Advanced search: many specifications are possible and a highly refined search is allowed. Navigational aids shows how the user is helped in the orientation and the use of the website. None: no navigational aid provided; Tips: few and simple elements of textual guide; Sitemap: clickable index; Guide: logical guide to content, navigation and search; Tutorial: complex iconographic support. User friendliness indicates the degree to which the website structure is easily understandable by users and navigation and orientation are quick and immediate. Poor: extremely dense home page and complex website structure so that orientation is long and difficult; Sufficient: dense home page and complex structure with quite difficult orientation; Fair: website complexity and structure allow a reasonable orientation and material search speed; Good: easy website structure so that orientation and research are well managed by users; Excellent: very simple and immediately understandable structure so that search and navigation are easy and fast. 6

7 4. Less networked countries For some websites no evaluation process has been conducted. The reason concerns the Library s mission. Many developing or less networked countries have difficulty to connect and remain connected for a long time due to financial and technical constraints. In this case, a brief explanation of the non evaluation reasons appears in the box usually devoted to the evaluation. 7

Library Web Presence Award

Library Web Presence Award Purpose: To promote awareness of the importance of good design and usability in web page development and to recognize outstanding examples of effective library web pages and