Libraries in the age of the Internet: NO to obsolescence and YES to synergy

1. Libraries in the age of the Internet: NO to obsolescence and YES to synergy Created to support a research paper presentation at the 5th Shanghai International Library Forum, in Hangzhou Library, China, August 24-27, 2010http://www.libnet.sh.cn/silf2010 by Paul.Nieuwenhuysen @ vub.ac.beVrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/nieuwenhuysen/professional/

2. These slides should be available from the WWW site http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/nieuwenhuysen/presentations/ (note: BIBLIO and not biblio)

3. These slides only show some simple pictures. The real report is published in the printed proceedings of this conference.

4. Introduction • Context • Problem statements • Methods • Results & discussion • Conclusions & recommendations contents = summary = structure = overviewof this presentation

5. Libraries in the age of the Internet: NO to obsolescence and YES to synergy Introduction: Context

6. Introduction: context • Libraries are active in a world where the Internet and the WWW offer information services that increase in number, size and efficiency. • Therefore it is increasingly important that libraries embrace these expanding services in their work and activities. • Realizing this efficiently in practice should be based on investigations, assessments of services and methods.

7. Libraries in the age of the Internet: NO to obsolescence and YES to synergy Introduction: Problem statements

8. Problem statements • How effectively can we embrace the Internet as an additional tool to make information available?

9. More concretely, we wanted to find out if a WWW site developed as an information source can be discovered effectively by end users. Problem statements • How effectively can we embrace the Internet as an additional tool to make information available?

10. Problem statements

11. Problem statements • How to create an efficient WWW presence?

12. How to assess the visibility or impact of a WWW site? Problem statements • How to create an efficient WWW presence?

13. Libraries in the age of the Internet: NO to obsolescence and YES to synergy Methods and findings

14. Methods and findings • A WWW site has been set up and developed in a particular subject domain.

17. Methods and findings • A WWW site has been set up and developed in a particular subject domain. • Several methods have been applied to analyze the visibility of the created WWW pages.

18. Methods and findings • A WWW site has been set up and developed in a particular subject domain. • Several methods have been applied to analyze the visibility of the created WWW pages. • Similar, competing WWW sites

19. Methods and findings: similar, competing WWW sites • Finding WWW sites that are related to your WWW site can be useful to discover sites that compete with your own site.

20. Methods and findings: similar, competing WWW sites • The competing pages that have been found can be inspected, for instance • to detect overlapping content, so that duplication of efforts can be avoided

21. Methods and findings: similar, competing WWW sites • The competing pages that have been found can be inspected, for instance • to detect overlapping content, so that duplication of efforts can be avoided • to get ideas on how to improve your own site

22. Methods and findings:similar, competing WWW sites • The competing pages that have been found can be inspected, for instance • to detect overlapping content, so that duplication of efforts can be avoided • to get ideas on how to improve your own site • to compare the visibility of your site with the competing sites 

23. Methods and findings:similar, competing WWW sites • We can find similar / related sites by using for instance Google Web search.

26. Methods and findings: visibility of the WWW site • A WWW site has been set up and developed in a particular subject domain. • Several methods have been applied to analyze the visibility of the created WWW pages. • Similar, competing WWW sites? • Visibility of the WWW site?or “WWW presence”?or “WWW footprint”?

27. Methods and findings: visibility of the WWW site • Visibility of the WWW site? • as reflected by links received

29. Results were satisfactory. J

30. Methods and findings: visibility of the WWW site • Visibility of the WWW site? • as reflected by links received • as reflected by Google PageRank

31. The Google PageRank of a WWW page is continuously calculated by Google, as an indicator of the importance and impact of this WWW page. • The PageRank data are then used by Google to improve the ranking of search results. • 0 < PageRank values < 10

33. PageRank values for the analyzed WWW pages were satisfactory J

34. Methods and findings: visibility of the WWW site • Visibility of the WWW site? • as reflected by links received • as reflected by Google PageRank • as reflected by pages indexed for WWW searching

35. The inclusion of your WWW pages by WWW search engines in their database index forms a basis for a high visibility in searches.

36. The inclusion of your WWW pages by WWW search engines in their database index forms a basis for a high visibility in searches.

37. Nearly all pages from the WWW site have been included in the Google WWW database. J

38. Methods and findings: visibility of the WWW site • Visibility of the WWW site? • as reflected by links received • as reflected by Google PageRank • as reflected by pages indexed for WWW searching • as reflected by image search results

39. A very direct aspect of visibility of a WWW site is the appearance of a page from the site in a WWW search engine results list, in the case of a query with keywords in the subject domain of the site.

40. A very direct aspect of visibility of a WWW site is the appearance of a page from the site in a WWW search engine results list, in the case of a query with keywords in the subject domain of the site. • Visual information is important in the created WWW site that is analyzed here.So it is suitable to perform this analysis by searching for images on the Internet.

43. Google image search engine presents a page from the analyzed site among the first 20 retrieved pages that are shown on the first page of results, for almost all queries. J

44. Methods and findings: visibility of the WWW site • Visibility of the WWW site? • as reflected by links received • as reflected by Google PageRank • as reflected by pages indexed for WWW searching • as reflected by image search results • as reflected by usage

45. Many statistical data related to usage of the WWW site can be collected and inspected in various ways.

46. Many statistical data related to usage of the WWW site can be collected and inspected in various ways. • One system that has become available recently and free of charge is Google Analytics: http://www.google.com/analytics/

48. The statistical data on usage & the more individual, personal contacts with users of the analyzed WWW site, indicate that the site is successful enough to justify its maintenance and further development. J

49. Methods and findings: visibility of the WWW site • Visibility of the WWW site? • as reflected by links received • as reflected by Google PageRank • as reflected by pages indexed for WWW searching • as reflected by image search results • as reflected by usage • through subject directories

50. When a subject directory on the WWW has selected a WWW page or site and has included a descriptive entry about it, then this indicates an appreciation by the creators of the directory. • Furthermore this increases the web presence and visibility of the included site.