Evaluating the Digital Presence of Academic Libraries: A Content Analysis of Library Websites of Women’s Colleges under the University of Delhi

Abstract

- This study is a critical analysis of the digital presence and content efficacy of library websites of the five women colleges of the University of Delhi, as a gap in institution-specific assessments of educational library web platforms in higher education in India. As the use of online academic resources and services has increased, quality, accessibility, and functionality of library websites have become indicators of the ability of an institution to assist in teaching, learning, and research in the digital world. The research design was descriptive quantitative research, and a structured 40-item binary checklist based on several dimensions was used, and these were general information, electronic resources, online services, website usability, user interactivity, and technical features. Evaluation points of 200 were evaluated between the library web sites of the Lady Shri Ram College of Women, Miranda House, Gargi College, Kamala Nehru College and Bhagini Nivedita College.

The results indicated that there was significant disparity in level and quality of content in the websites of the sampled institutions. The coverage of the content and functional readiness was the most frequent in Lady Shri Ram College for Women (87.5%), and the lowest in Bhagini Nivedita College (60.0%), which shows poor coverage of the necessary digital services. One-way ANOVA statistically showed that there was a significant difference between institutions with regard to general content availability as well as the quality of web-based library services. These gaps help to indicate that there is an unequal digital growth among connected women colleges, which can have an impact on gaining equal access to academic information and support provider. This study suggests the development of minimum standards of content of library websites, specific improvement of underperforming websites, capacity building of library professionals, and regular assessment of the websites, which will provide constant improvement. The study will be helpful to the body of academic library web site assessment literature and provide a model of site assessment that can be repeated in other academic library digital presence evaluation within the multi-college university systems.