Towards a public library digital service taxonomy

Buchanan, S. and McMenemy, D. (2010) Towards a public library digital service taxonomy. In: Lalmas, M., Jose, J., Rauber, J., Sebastiani, F. and Frommholz, I. (eds.) Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries: 14th European Conference, ECDL 2010, Glasgow, UK, September 6-10, 2010. Proceedings. Series: Lecture notes in computer science (6273). Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 425-428. ISBN 9783642154638 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-15464-5_48)

Abstract

Recent research has identified inconsistency of public library digital services, and associated problems of disparity and duplication, as a key usability issue. The hypothesis of this research is that root cause is inconsistent definition and specification of digital services, and that a service taxonomy would facilitate resolution of this issue, providing a classification scheme and controlled vocabulary. Reporting on initial research to validate this hypothesis, which examined options available from 8 of 32 Scottish public library homepages; evidence of inconsistency of terminology and organisation schemes was found, with navigation not always straightforward due to a high number of loosely structured options being available from the majority of sites sampled. Initial findings are discussed including planned second stage research.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Keywords: Public library, digital service taxonomy, Scottish public libraries.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: McMenemy, Dr David
• Authors: Buchanan, S., and McMenemy, D.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Information Studies
• Publisher: Springer
• ISBN: 9783642154638