Siteseeing: Selected Magazines on the Web

SUMMARY

This “Siteseeing” column provides reviews of selected sites on the topic of 15 of the author's favorite print magazines that have Web sites.     

Databases to the Web: From Static to Dynamic on the Express

SUMMARY

The need to deliver current data on periodical holdings and electronic resources led the staff at Kennesaw State University's Sturgis Library to develop database-driven dynamic Web pages. The project's success was based on the incorporation of skills, technologies and hardware that were already in place in the library with Allaire's ColdFusion Express, a free, feature-limited version of ColdFusion Web application server.     

Web Site Design Resources for the Librarian

ABSTRACT

A selective, annotated bibliography of books, journal articles, and electronic resources relating to Web site design aimed specifically at beginning library Web Managers.     

A Review of “Reference Sources for Small and Medium-sized Libraries”

SUMMARY

In the summer of 1999, the libraries at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) embarked on a Web redesign project. Essential to the new Web site were the development of a database of resources, Sage, and the creation of various in-house tools, which are used to enter and edit database resources. Tools were also created which assist in the creation and maintenance of various Web sites. With the completion of the project, UCSD students, faculty and staff can easily locate the resources and library information they need and library staff have more tools for Web site management.     

Federated Searching

ABSTRACT

With an increasing number of libraries implementing federated searching to help users negotiate the complex electronic database environment, it is important to note how users are being instructed to use these resources. This article presents the results of examinations of the Web sites of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions that currently use federated search products. It analyzes help guides and search tips related to federated searching to determine what concepts are being explained to users and how the information is being communicated. The result of the evaluation of these Web sites is a list of “best practice” guidelines that may be used by librarians creating their own federated searching guides. doi:10.1300/J136v12n03_03     

Applying Learning Style Theory to Web Page Design

ABSTRACT

Library Web sites can be instructional tools, especially for those patrons who utilize library resources from their homes. Many libraries are developing online tutorials, but there is an opportunity for Web instruction on another level. The organization and design of a Web site can act as an instructional tool in itself. This paper is a call to library Web designers to assess their work in terms of learning style preferences. Learning style theory is based on how people process information and learn new material. Applying these ideas to Web page design can make library resources more accessible and improve the patron's comprehension of how the library works.     

An Examination of Library World Wide Web Sites at Medium-Sized Universities

ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of a study of World Wide Web (Web) Sites for 133 academic libraries serving medium-sized universities. Each library Web site was examined, and all of the features were recorded. The study identified 31 core components which were present in over 50 percent of the libraries surveyed. The study indicated that: the navigational and design aspects of library Web sites should be improved; materials should be placed on the sites only if they will be accessed and utilized by the user community; and libraries could profit by making greater use of online tutorials and virtual tours to supplement regular bibliographic instruction.     

The Best Web Sites in Psychology and Sociology

Abstract

The World Wide Web offers a large and ever-expanding number of resources in the fields of psychology and sociology. Growth of the Web has been so fast that it has been difficult to keep track of all the new resources that are rapidly becoming available. With so many new Web sites cropping up, there is a growing need to sort through these resources and determine which sites are the most valuable for research in these subject areas. This study first discusses some criteria for assessing the quality of Web sites, and then applies these criteria to the Web sites currently available in an effort to determine which sites are the best for these two fields.     

Form-based proxy caching for database-backed web sites: keywords and functions

Web caching proxy servers are essential for improving web performance and scalability, and recent research has focused on making proxy caching work for database-backed web sites. In this paper, we explore a new proxy caching framework that exploits the query semantics of HTML forms. We identify two common classes of form-based queries from real-world database-backed web sites, namely, keyword-based queries and function-embedded queries. Using typical examples of these queries, we study two representative caching schemes within our framework: (i) traditional passive query caching, and (ii) active query caching, in which the proxy cache can service a request by evaluating a query over the contents of the cache. Results from our experimental implementation show that our form-based proxy is a general and flexible approach that efficiently enables active caching schemes for database-backed web sites. Furthermore, handling query containment at the proxy yields significant performance advantages over passive query caching, but extending the power of the active cache to do full semantic caching appears to be less generally effective.     

An exploratory study of the accessibility of state government Web sites

This paper focuses on Web accessibility. Relevant legislation and judicial decisions are reviewed, and prior empirical research is presented. This study presents the results from the Web accessibility analysis of the home pages of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It found that twenty-nine percent of the home pages do not meet the requirements for Conformance Level A Web accessibility. Only one state meets Conformance Level AA standards, which are the minimum standards recommended for Web accessibility, and no state meets Conformance Level AAA standards. This paper also discusses how to address common accessibility problems.

Service Priorities and Balance: Delivering a Menu of Quality Services That Reflect Users Needs and Tastes

ABSTRACT

With the increasing use of technology, librarians are being asked to provide instruction in a variety of different formats. One way for academic librarians to meet the demand of teaching is for them to take a closer look at what is written in the educational literature about teaching. This article reviews eight academic Web sites that deal with teaching effectiveness and describes their usefulness for librarians and others interested in teaching.     

A Comprehensive Website Meets the Serials Librarian's Back Issue Needs

Abstract

The author describes USBE's Website, which meets virtually every back issue need of the serials librarian. An online catalog of over 17,000 scholarly journal title holdings, order page, membership application, and a fee-free out-of-print book search service are some of the features of the USBE site. The USBE Web pages also include instructions on how to donate surplus periodicals to the nonprofit organization, as well as special offers and other news pertinent to serials librarians. Includes interview comments by USBE President, John Zubal and USBE Operations Manager, Jean Marie Zubal.     

Dumbing Down Dewey

ABSTRACT

This column takes a look at Web sites specifically for use by children and young adults. Sites from ALA, the Internet Public Library, the Librarians' Index to the Internet, and Yahooliganst are evaluated. The inclusion of information on sexual topics within these sites is also discussed.     

Deformed Frogs,Declining Amphibians

ABSTRACT

Frogs and salamanders have been big in the news in recent years as more and more cases of deformities and declining populations come to light. For those who are interested in finding out more information about declining and deformed amphibians, the Web offers some good places to start. Individuals, schools, researchers, and various government agencies are all trying to piece together the environmental conditions that produce deformities and declining populations. Find out more about the plight of the web-footed from these Web sites.     

On the efficiency of keyboard navigation in Web sites

An efficient keyboard access to Web sites is highly important for many groups of disabled users. However, the current design of most Web sites makes the efficient keyboard navigation nearly impossible. This paper investigates the performance of the keyboard and mouse navigation in Web pages. The comparison is based on the theoretical arguments and on two small studies. The results show that the current amount of keyboard support in common Web sites is far from being sufficient. Typical problems concerning keyboard support in Web sites are discussed, along with possible solutions and the related constraints.

A Dynamic Foundational Architecture for Semantic Web Services

The combination of Web services and ontologies is gaining momentum as the potential silver bullets for tomorrows Web, i.e., the Semantic Web. We propose an architectural foundation for managing semantic Web services in dynamic environments. We introduce the concept of community to cater for an ontological organization of Web services. We develop an ontology called community ontology that serves as a template for describing communities of Web services. We also propose a peer-to-peer approach for managing communities in dynamic environments.     

Web Pages and Chalk

ABSTRACT

This is an introduction to a new column, “Web Pages and Chalk: The Web and Learning.”     

Siteseeing

ABSTRACT

This “Siteseeing” column provides reviews of a wide range of subjects.     

Automatic integration of Web search interfaces with WISE-Integrator

An increasing number of databases are becoming Web accessible through form-based search interfaces, and many of these sources are database-driven e-commerce sites. It is a daunting task for users to access numerous Web sites individually to get the desired information. Hence, providing a unified access to multiple e-commerce search engines selling similar products is of great importance in allowing users to search and compare products from multiple sites with ease. One key task for providing such a capability is to integrate the Web search interfaces of these e-commerce search engines so that user queries can be submitted against the integrated interface. Currently, integrating such search interfaces is carried out either manually or semiautomatically, which is inefficient and difficult to maintain. In this paper, we present WISE-Integrator - a tool that performs automatic integration of Web Interfaces of Search Engines. WISE-Integrator explores a rich set of special metainformation that exists in Web search interfaces and uses the information to identify matching attributes from different search interfaces for integration. It also resolves domain differences of matching attributes. In this paper, we also discuss how to automatically extract information from search interfaces that is needed by WISE-Integrator to perform automatic interface integration. Our experimental results, based on 143 real-world search interfaces in four different domains, indicate that WISE-Integrator can achieve high attribute matching accuracy and can produce high-quality integrated search interfaces without human interactions.Received: 2 January 2004, Accepted: 25 March 2004, Published online: 12 August 2004Edited by: M. Carey