Comparative studies of university web sites?

[Karen Harker]

I am sorry, but I don't remember seeing this, but then, I am a little
trigger happy when it comes to the delete button.

I, too, have been interested in comparing these sites.  In fact, I am
preparing to study the most and least linked-to sites for academic
medical libraries.  I would like to determine what makes the popular
ones successful and the unpopular ones not.  

In the process of preparing my proposal, I have learned of several
studies, most of them a couple of years old.  Debashis Aikat did his
dissertation for his PhD in communication on this.  He compared a random
sample of web sites of different domains and analyzed their content. 
Closer to home, Laurel A. Clyde studied library web pages and listed the
types of infomration provided.  Finally, a classmate of mine did her
Master's paper on this.  She did a content analysis of university
library web sites.

I agree on the need, and I hope to fill a tiny aspect of it soon.

Here are the cites for the 3 items above:

Aikat, Debashis. 1995. Adventure in cyberspace: Exploring the
information content of the World Wide Web pages on the Internet.  Ph.D.
diss., Ohio University.

Clyde, Laurel A.  1996.  The library as infomration provider: the home
page. Electronic Libraries, 14(6):549-558.

Fan, Qi. 1997.  Information content analysis of university library Web
sites.  Masters professional paper, Texas Woman's University.

Good Luck.


Karen R. Harker
Information Resources Librarian
UT Southwestern Medical Library
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX  75235
214-648-2001
www.swmed.edu/home_pages/library/

>>> Prentiss Riddle <riddle at is.rice.edu> 03/26 12:09 PM >>>
A while back I asked:

> Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 10:33:58 -0800
> From: Prentiss Riddle <riddle at is.rice.edu>
> Subject: Comparative studies of university web sites?
> 
> Does anyone know of any good online or printed comparative studies of
> university web sites?

To my surprise I received no positive replies to this question.
I did learn of one relevant report:

  1997 CASE Awards for University World Wide Web Pages 
    (Considered 116 entries, mostly consisting of subsidiary
departmental
    or project sites rather than overall university sites.)
    http://www.rutledge.com/stoner/judge97.html 

I think there's a research niche to be filled here.  Pity I don't have
the time to try to fill it myself, but I'm undertaking my own much more
informal and less ambitious survey of university web sites, which you'd
be welcome to look at (remembering that it's a work in progress):

        http://www.rice.edu/~riddle/uniweb/ 

Since this is Web4Lib I'll mention a couple of resources specifically
on *library* web sites (pardon me if you've seen these before):

  AUTHOR:         Garlock, Kristen L.
  TITLE:          Building the service-based library Web site : a
step-by-step
                    guide to design and options / Kristen L. Garlock and
Sherry
                    Piontek.
  PUBLISHED:      Chicago : American Library Association, 1996.
  DESCRIPTION:    vi, 101 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.
  NOTES:          Includes index.
                  Contents: The home page advantage -- Start with a plan
--
                    Everybody's web site -- Content -- Presentation --
The
                    dynamic web site -- Appendixes.
  SUBJECTS:       Library information networks
                  World Wide Web (Information retrieval system)
                  Hypertext systems.
                  Computer graphics
  OTHER AUTHORS:  Piontek, Sherry
  ISBN:           0838906745 (alk. paper)

  TITLE:          The library Web / Julie M. Still, editor.
  PUBLISHED:      Medford, NJ : Information Today, 1997.
  DESCRIPTION:    vii, 221 p. ; 24 cm.
  NOTES:          Includes bibliographical references and index.
  SUBJECTS:       Library information networks
                  World Wide Web (Information retrieval system)
                  Library information networks--United States
                  Web sites--Design.
                  Web sites--United States--Design.
  OTHER AUTHORS:  Still, Julie
  ISBN:           157387034X   
  OCLC NUMBER:    36672063

If anyone has anything to add, I'd be interested.

-- Prentiss Riddle ("aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada") riddle at rice.edu

-- Webmaster, Rice University / http://is.rice.edu/~riddle 
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