The increase of digital collection and the appearance of digital library make Internet resources as important information resource of library. It also raises discussions about the development, preservation, and use of Internet resources as a part of l...
The increase of digital collection and the appearance of digital library make Internet resources as important information resource of library. It also raises discussions about the development, preservation, and use of Internet resources as a part of library collections.
Internet resources are easy to publish and circulate. At the same time, they also have some problems in terms of its content, construction, and utilization. Restrictions in information selection and utilization is one example because useful Internet resources are exist as mixed with untested resources. Therefore, librarians need some objective factors in evaluating Internet resources for the selection of information materials at the dimension of library collection development.
The main purpose of this study is to evaluate Internet resources and select a useful its resources in library collection.
This study suggests the following evaluation factors for the selection of such a Internet resources.
1) Content Quality evaluation factors: Although the construction method of Internet resources interconnect text resources and audio-visual resources, and although it is more fresh than conventional printed materials, the content of resources is still the most important factor in determining the value of resources.
2) Service quality evaluation factors: Library services, regardless of the quality of content, will be rejected if users are uncomfortable in using the services. Therefore, the improvement of user environments is important to enhance the value of resource utilization.
3) Policy evaluation factors: There can be many factors to achieve the goals of a library. Such factors will be the policy evaluation factors and they should be considered in library development plan. Therefore, policy evaluation based on user needs is essential.
In this study, evaluation is made by the experimental application of Internet environments on the practically selected factors. As evaluation method, evaluation factors are scaled and points are imposed on each item. Five points scale was used on the base of adaptability of the evaluation factors as the point imposing method. Excellent Internet resources were selected by imposing points on calculated evaluation index and by the standard points set by a library.
Until these days, libraries and information service institutions could not perform systemic collection of resources because they have no selection criteria, although they feel the necessity of Internet resources. The result of this study will be utilized as the guidelines for resource development as well as that of Internet resource development.
Expected utilities of this study are
1) to provide basic guidelines in developing Internet resources into collections.
2) to provide infrastructure which enable library to comprise network information and Internet resources as collections.
3) to provide the guidelines in developing collection of electronic library.