[FYI] Final Report, Evaluation of GILS

[Terry Kuny]

From: "William E. Moen" <wem0002 at jove.acs.unt.edu>
Subject: Final Report, Evaluation of Government Information Locator Service
(GILS)


The Final Report of the project, An Evaluation of the U.S. Government's 
Implementation of the Government Information Locator Service (GILS), is 
now available for Web access.  

The Final Report documents the results of a 9-month evaluation study 
commissioned in response to the GILS Board's request for an assessment 
of GILS.  The Principal Investigators for the study were:

     William E. Moen (School of Library and Information Sciences, 
          University of North Texas) 
     Charles R. McClure, Distinguished Professor (School of 
          Information Studies, Syracuse University).

The study began in September 1996, data collection ended in March 1997, 
and the final report completed in June 1997. The goal of the study was 
to understand how:

     GILS serves various user groups 
     GILS improves public access to government information 
     Agencies are progressing with their implementations 
     GILS works as a tool for information resources management.  

Recognizing the complexity of GILS as a networked information service, 
the investigators considered multiple aspects of GILS, including 
policy, technology, content, and standards. A primary focus of the 
study was on users; this focus addressed who is using GILS and how well 
users' needs are being served, and to identify what modifications are 
needed to improve service to the public. 

Data collection activities included site visits to Federal agencies, 
focus groups with representatives of user communities and stakeholders, 
policy review, online user assessments of GILS implementations, 
analysis of Web server transaction logs, and a content analysis of GILS 
records (see Chapter 2 for the policy review and Chapter 3 for study 
method). Analysis and synthesis of the data resulted in a series of 
findings that address the goal of the study and also in a series of 
recommendations for improving GILS (detailed in Chapter 4).

Project documents are available on the GILS Evaluation web site:

     http://www.unt.edu/slis/research/gilseval/gilseval.htm

The Final Report and the original Technical Proposal are at:

     http://www.unt.edu/slis/research/gilseval/gilsdocs.htm

The Project Descrition is at:

     http://www.unt.edu/slis/research/gilseval/gilsdesc.htm


The Final Report is available in HTML and PDF formats.  

Questions and comments about the report should be referred to Moen at:

     wem0002 at jove.acs.unt.edu


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*  William E. Moen                            *
*  School of Library and Information Sciences *
*  University of North Texas                  *
*  PO Box 13796                               *
*  Denton, TX  76203                          *
*                                             * 
*  Email:  wem0002 at jove.acs.unt.edu           *
*  Voice:  817-565-3563                       *
*  Fax:    817-565-3101                       *
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