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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb023404. When citing the article, please cite: Peter S. Morville, Susan J. Wickhorst, (1995), “Building subject-specific guides to Internet resources”, Collection Building, Vol. 14 Iss: 3, pp. 26 - 31.

Librarians can provide leadership in the era of networked information retrieval by developing subject‐specific guides to Internet resources. The traditional skills of librarianship which include the identification, selection, evaluation, description, and organization of information resources are proving to be highly valuable in the Internet environment. A collection of these topical guides is currently accessible through the Clearinghouse for Subject‐Oriented Internet Resource Guides. The success of this Clearinghouse demonstrates the demand for value‐added collections of Internet information. Provides step‐by‐step instructions for selecting a topic, conducting online research, and building a useful subject‐specific guide.

This work aims to draw attention to information retrieval philosophies and techniques allied to the records management profession, advocating a wider professional consideration of a functional approach to information management, in this instance in the development of information architecture.

The paper draws from a hypothesis originally presented by the author that advocated a viewpoint whereby the application of records management techniques, traditionally applied to develop business classification schemes, was offered as an additional solution to organising information resources and services (within a university intranet), where earlier approaches, notably subject‐ and administrative‐based arrangements, were found to be lacking. The hypothesis was tested via work‐based action learning and is presented here as an extended case study. The paper also draws on evidence submitted to the Joint Information Systems Committee in support of the University of Abertay Dundee's application for consideration for the JISC award for innovation in records and information management.

The original hypothesis has been tested in the workplace. Information retrieval techniques, allied to records management (functional classification), were the main influence in the development of pre‐ and post‐coordinate information retrieval systems to support a wider information architecture, where the subject approach was found to be lacking. Their use within the workplace has since been extended.

The paper advocates that the development of information retrieval as a discipline should include a wider consideration of functional classification, as this alternative to the subject approach is largely ignored in mainstream IR works.

The purpose of this paper is to explore methods for opening up web content to automated classification using metadata, potentially in the context of library groupware or portals.

Examines various web sites and meta‐searching tools which provides a new means of access for users, and allow users to better document and integrate their research findings.

This paper is exploratory in nature and highlights trends in the area of library groupware, link routing, and personalized metadata usage.

The vast wealth of information on the web today needs to be exploited by information specialists (librarians) by assisting patrons in organizing, sharing and syndicating content from nearly any information source and empowering patrons via the use of “folksonomies” which are grass roots taxonomies, in conjunction with traditional controlled vocabularies.

In highlighting the as of yet untapped power of technologies such as openURL and link routing, digital librarians can assist patrons by providing services against traditional and non traditional information sources allowing resources to be organized and shared in order to increase utility. This paper examines innovative means by which this could be accomplished.

This column seeks to recommend five basic principles that should be used when a library web site is designed or refactored.

Explores the options available when creating or redesigning a library web site

This column is simply exploratory, and examines issues surrounding the initial design or re‐design of a library web site.

The design of a library web site should take into account these five principles as they are outlined in this column, and those principles include: simplicity, user centered design, findability, web standards and accessibility.

This column suggests five principles that will assist librarians and library technology workers in designing better web sites which follow usability principles, web standards and accessibility guidelines. This will hopefully improve the quality of library web based resources and services.

This article explores the reasons why librarians should be at the heart of Internet site development. There are two distinct ways in which librarians can most effectively contribute to this medium. The first is by getting involved in information architecture. This new discipline requires skills such as expertise in search techniques and navigational logic, and generally involves the librarian working closely with graphic designers to create a firm foundation for the site. The second area is the role librarians can play in the structuring of the data which drives the site (data management).

In the digital library era, library websites are recognized as the extension of library services. The usability and findability of library websites are growing more and more important to patrons. No matter how these websites have been built, they should offer the capability that patrons can find their required information quickly and intuitively. The website logs keep tracks of users' factual behaviors of finding their required information. Based on the evidences, the author attempts to reconstruct the websites to promote their internal findability.

In the past, the card sorting method has generally been applied to reconstruct websites to improve their internal findability. Alternately, in this research, a first attempt is made to try to use website log data to implement website reconstruction. The website log data was cleaned and user sub‐sessions were extracted according to their respective critical time of session navigation. Each sub‐session's threshold time of target page was then calculated with different weights to determine its navigating parent pages. The different weighted parent pages were utilized to reconstruct various websites. A task‐oriented experiment of four tasks and 25 participants was conducted to measure the effects of findability between the constructed websites.

By analysis of the variance of time to complete the tasks, it is shown that the reconstructed websites have better findability performance in the time spent to complete the tasks than the current one, if focusing much more on the target pages. The result clearly explores that when the parent pages of a page are selected, whether it is a target page is the most important issue to improve website findability. The target page plays a critical role in website reconstruction. Furthermore, the traditional card sorting method is applied to the case website to reconstruct it. The findability experiment is then conducted and its time to complete the tasks is compared to those of websites that are reconstructed. The approach proposed here has better effects than card sorting.

Mining web log data to discover user behaviors on the library website, this research applies a heuristic method to analyze the data collected to reconstruct websites. Focusing on the target pages, the reconstructed websites will have better findability. Besides traditional card sorting techniques, this paper provides an alternative way to reconstruct websites such that users can find what they need more conveniently and intuitively.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process, analysis, results, and implications of a card sorting usability study conducted during the planning stages of a web site redesign project at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The methodology was based on recommendations from usability literature. An open card sort was conducted with 14 students and one faculty member using 93 cards labeled with content from the library's web site. The subjects were asked to “think aloud” and explain their rationale for sorting the cards. The researchers used statistical analysis software to run a factor analysis on the results.

The researchers extracted 11 categories of cards that loaded together and 27 cards that did not fit a category. The categories showed evidence of clustering by shared words, format, and process or task. Cards that did not load were standalone categories, or were redundant or meaningless to the subjects.

The open card sort methodology and large number of cards resulted in cumbersome data that required specialized analysis. The qualitative data were critical to the interpretation of the quantitative data.

Libraries can use the process and analysis as a model for their own card sort usability studies. Results can be used to inform the naming of content and the creation of library web site architecture.

This study is unique in its use of the open card sort technique and factor analysis of the results. The results illustrate users' perceptions of library terminology and web site structure.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the difficulty of applying faceted classification outside of library contexts and also to indicate that faceted approaches are poorly expressed to non‐experts.

The faceted approach is being applied outside of its “home” community, with mixed results. The approach is based in part on examination of a broad base of literature and in part on results and reflections on a case study applying faceted notions to “real world” engineering documentation.

The paper comes across a number of pragmatic and theoretical issues namely: differing interpretations of the facet notion; confusion between faceted analysis and faceted classification; lack of methodological guidance; the use of simplistic domains as exemplars; description verses analysis; facet recognition is unproblematic; and is the process purely top‐down or bottom‐up.

That facet analysis is not inherently associated with a particular epistemology; that greater guidance about the derivation is needed, that greater realism is needed when teaching faceted approaches.

Experiences of applying faceted classifications are presented that can be drawn upon to guide future work in the area.

No previous work has reflected on the actual empirical experience used to create a faceted description, especially with reference to engineering documents.