A comparison of the Internet presences of German libraries and companies

This investigation included 60 German (30 academic and 30 public) libraries and 50 German companies (30 publishers and 20 mail order firms). The aim w as to evaluate the quality of their homepages in terms of the information c ontent, currency, graphics, clearness and service. The importance of a Worl d Wide Web (WWW) presence for companies has been shown. Libraries and compa nies are comparable in this respect because of the common basis of producti on and delivery of output. A website is a means of speaking to a target group, transporting the corpor ate identity, informing visitors to the site about current activities, etc. It is important for marketing as well, by offering certain services - like email ordering ...- via Internet, and by presenting products in a new way on the Web. The results of the investigation show that the currency of libraries' websi tes is far behind the ideal of a quick informing and up-to-date-medium, Pub lic libraries offer little service and rarely utilise the wide range of pos sibilities given by the WWW. Academic Libraries have better service and str ive to improve it by including the Internet, Companies' homepages show bett er results than those of the libraries, most especially in the fields of de sign quality, clearness and corporate identity.