Evaluation of library Web sites: the Danish case

This paper presents the major findings from the project 'Development of new methods for evaluation of library Web sites on the World Wide Web'. The re port includes a brief examination and discussion of quality applied to Web sites in general and concerning library Web sites in particular Findings fr om a few empirical surveys are presented. A new list of quality criteria fo r evaluation of academic libraries is compiled. The list is tested on three Danish academic libraries. Finally, a revised list of criteria is applied to twelve major Danish academic libraries. The findings include the panelli sts' scores and their verbal comments. The main conclusion is that the Web sites of the Danish academic libraries in question are above average compar ed with Web sites in general. They do not, however come up to expectations as virtual expressions of the quality levels of the libraries. This situati on can only be improved if the libraries allocate the necessary resources r egarding updating and development of the Web sites. This should be done on the basis of regular user studies and comparative evaluations.