Results of Search

AUTHOR: Raymond D. Irwin
TITLE: Academic Library and Departmental Web Resources in Computer Science
ADVISER: Dr. Bhagirathi Subrahmanyam
ABSTRACT:

Lists of freely available Web resources were examined to determine if, and to
what extent, a core collection of Web resources in computer science existed,
what kinds of entities sponsored such resources, how popular selected resources
were across the entirety of the Web, and what kinds of resources were being
selected in terms of granularity. Lists were compared to find if the library
and the computer science department within the same institution were selecting
the same types of resources (indicating duplication of effort) and if they
linked to one another (suggesting acknowledgement of the work of the other).
The Web sites of the libraries and computer science departments of the 26 top
graduate programs in computer science were examined. A total of 3,253 links
were harvested from 22 library sites and 5,876 came from 26 departmental sites.
Analysis was done on both links and the domains from which they came. Findings
indicate that sites were more often available than pages (i.e. single HTML
files) and were linked to more frequently, according to Google counts.
Libraries tended to select resources from commercial entities, particularly
publishers of electronic journals, while departments drew more from educational
institutions. Across the 26 departments and 22 libraries some overlap in Web
collections existed, but within institutions it was minimal, suggesting very
little duplication of effort. Very few departments and libraries within the
same institution, however, pointed to the other's Web site. Suggestions for
further research include similar studies of other disciplines, additional
investigations of Web resource transience, and more work on link selection
standards.