Webbplatsen En integrerad del av folkbibliotekets verksamhet?

Abstract

In a web environment the library and the librarian continue to function in their role as information provider even when the physical library is closed. Research question is to describe how and in what extent the public libraries websites are integrated in their daily activity and what the causes are for that. The empirical material consists of a survey of number of public libraries websites and qualitative interviews with responsible librarians. I have delimited the study by only investigating the websites of Gothenburg public libraries. In my survey of the websites I have studied four spheres; Services, Contact, Structure and General viewpoints. The qualitative interviews present the responsible librarians opinions in three areas; the objectives of the public libraries activity, the websites content and the librarians part in web publishing. The result of the study shows that the websites of the public libraries in small extent are integrated in the public libraries daily activity. As a result of this study I found four underlying factors, which should be concerned when a web project initiates. The factors are Organisation/Management, Objectives, Time and Knowledge/Interest. First of all it is most important for the organisation to have a manager with library and information science backgrounds. Second, objectives are tools to integrate the websites in the libraries daily activity. It demands time to maintain, integrate and model a Website and also knowledge; interest. The task should be integrated in the responsible librarians profession. Liable librarian should possess knowledge of information architecture and Meta data. The purpose of the study is to create an understanding for these factors and emphasize them in a web environment.