Internet Librarian International 2002 Conference - 18-20 March 2002A talk on Benchmarking Of Library Web Sites was given by Brian Kelly and Penny Garrod at the Internet Librarian International 2002 Conference.
The talk lasted for 60 minutes and took place from 11:45-12:45 on Tuesday 19th March 2002 in the Web Wizards Symposium Track B (session B201).
How is my Web site doing? How does it compare with others in my community? Questions many Web managers will no doubt be asking at some stage in the life cycle of their Web site. This talk aims to provide some answers by reporting on an automated benchmarking survey of Public Library Web sites. The survey methodology will be described, allowing organisations to repeat the survey for themselves. A summary of the limitations of such automated surveys will also be given. The talk will conclude by identifying the need for standard definitions to allow benchmarking surveys to provide comparable results and by making recommendations for the Web management community based on the findings.
This talk will be based on work which UKOLN publish in a regular WebWatch column in the Ariadne e-journal.
By the end of the session, the audience will be aware of trends in the approaches to the provision of Web sites within the UK Public Library sector. The audience will be aware of limitations of the survey process and be in a position to carry out their own surveys and compare with findings in the UK.