Libraries Without Walls 6: Evaluating the Distributed Delivery of Library Services

by Peter Brophy (Editor), Jenny Craven (Editor), Margaret Markland (Editor)

Overview

This edited collection is drawn from the sixth Libraries Without Walls Conference, held in 2005. From their beginnings in 1995, the Libraries Without Walls conferences have mapped a major change in the practice of librarianship. While library services are still concerned to provide users with physical access to their buildings, electronic access, often from remote locations, is becoming ever more dominant. Papers presented at previous LWW conferences have provided examples of how libraries are pushing out the frontiers of their services. In 2005 a different approach was taken. The question was asked, 'How do we know whether these new services are having a positive impact on our users?'
In response, papers written by leading professionals worldwide followed these broad themes:

• theoretical approaches to the evaluation of the new services, with an emphasis on qualitative methods
• the user experience: what do we know about the users of these services?
• assessment of the usability, including the accessibility, of the services
• measuring the outcomes and impact.

Readership: These state-of-the-art papers will enable library managers and information professionals in all sectors to keep abreast of the latest developments in this vital area. The book will also assist educational specialists and course developers in increasing their understanding of the role and importance of information in the learning process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781856048026
Publisher:	Facet Publishing
Publication date:	05/18/2006
Series:	Libraries Without Walls , #6
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Peter Brophy BSc HonFCLIP FCLIP FRSA ILTM is Professor of Information Management in the Department of Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Director of the Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM).
Jenny Craven MA MCLIP is Research Associate at CERLIM, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Margaret Markland MSc is Research Associate at CERLIM, Manchester Metropolitan University.

Jenny Craven MA MCLIP is a Research Associate at the Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM), at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has worked on a number of research projects concerned with web accessibility and library services for visually impaired people (see www.cerlim.ac.uk/projects/index-accessib).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction - Peter Brophy 2. Keynote address: Involving the customer in library planning and decision making - Susan McKnight
3. Denmark's Electronic Research Library: evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests - Bo Öhrström
4. Beyond the guidelines: assessment of the usability and accessibility of distributed services from the users' perspective - Jenny Craven
5. Online services versus online chaos: evaluating online services in a Greek academic library - Emmanouel Garoufallou and Rania Siatri
6. The Hellenic Academic Libraries Consortium (HEAL-Link) and its effect on library services in Greece: the case of Aristotle University library system - Claudine Xenidou-Dervou
7. Information seeking in large-scale resource discovery environments: users and union catalogues - Richard J Hartley
8. A 'joined-up' electronic journal service: user attitudes and behaviour - Ken Eason, Ross MacIntyre and Ann Apps
9. Climbing the ladders and sidestepping the snakes: achieving accessibility through a co-ordinated and strategic approach - Dawn McLoughlin and Ruth Wilson
10. The impact of library and information services on health professionals' ability to locate information for patient care - Alison Brettle
11. We know we are making a difference but can we prove it? Impact measurement in a higher education library - Dianne Nelson, Jacqueline Chelin, Jane Redman and Pauline Shaw
12. Proving our worth? Measuring the impact of the public library service in the UK - Juliet Eve
13. Outcomes and impacts, dollars and sense: are libraries measuring up? - Jose-Marie Griffiths
14. Longitude II: assessing the value and impact of library services over time - Peter Brophy and Jenny Craven
15. The use of electronic journals in academic libraries in Castilla y Leon - Blanca Rodriguez Bravo and Maria Luisa Alvite Diez
16. The integration of library activities in the academic world: a practitioner's view - Ursula Nielsen and Marie-Louise Axelsson
17. Monitoring PULMAN's Oeiras Manifesto Action Plan - Robert Davies
18. Enabling the library in the university systems: trial and evaluation in the use of library services away from the library - Chris Awre, Ralph Quarles and Steven Smail
19. Towards an integrated theory of digital library success from the users' perspective - Li-Hsiang Lai, Ming-Der Wu and Yeu-Sheng Hsieh
20. The role of digital libraries in helping students attend to source information - Steve Cohen, Susan Eales, Michael Fegan and Dean Rehberger 21. A DiVA for every audience: lessons learned from the evaluation of an online digital video library - Elizabeth Mallett, Agnes Kukilska-Hulme, Anne Jelfs and Chetz Colwell
22. Usability evaluation of Ebrary and OverDrive e-book online systems - Anne Morris and Panos Balatsoukas
23. Tearing down the walls: demand for e-books in an academic library - Ellen Derey Safley