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IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
1 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
SHOWCASING UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ON THE WEB: A
COMPARATIVEAND INFORMETRICSTUDY OF THE WEBSITES OF
PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN WEST BENGAL
SujanBandhu Chakraborty Asst. Librarian, Brainware Group of Institutions, 398, Ramkrishnapur, Barasat, Kolkata – 700125
E-mail:[email protected], Phone: 9163278886
Solanki Chakraborty Librarian, Central Modern College of Education, 156, M.N.K Road, Baranagar, Kolkata – 700036
ABSTRACT
To meet the demand for effective information among the students community, the academic institutions
are now developing dynamic websites to convey the facilities and infrastructures they have. This is very
fruitful, not only for the current students of the institutions but also for the prospective future students
who are planning to take admission in those institutions. Library is one of the integral parts of an
academic institution. For any higher education institution library play a very important role to support the
academics, research and development etc. This paper has attempted to evaluate the contents and
accessibility features of library available in the websites of ten private universities in West Bengal. This
study has been carried out from March 09, 2019 to April 09, 2019. For the evaluation of the websites
certain criteria were set and at the end ranks were given based on the observations. It was observed that
most of the private universities in West Bengal developed their university websites as a part of the
minimum standard required. As a result the web presence of their libraries was not at all satisfactory in
most of the cases. Some suggestions have been recommended based on the observations at the end for
future improvements.
Keywords: Content analysis, web presence, library website, private university, West Bengal.
1. INTRODUCTION
Global education business is going through a change due to revolution in information especially in the
field of World Wide Web (WWW) and information is one of the main pillars of education. Academic
institutions are now providing in-depth information about the courses, facilities, and other resources they
have through their institutional websites. Library is an integral part of an academic institution. Therefore,
it is very much obvious that the academic institutions, especially higher education institutions, should
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
2 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
provide all the necessary information about their library on their institutional websites. A dedicated
library website or web page on the university's website is a very effective tool for publicizing and
showcasing library services.
The present study has made an attempt to do a comparative analysis of web presence of the private
university libraries in West Bengal.
2. BACKGROUND
Information is emerging as one of the main competitive assets in present global education business. In
fact, information is a key to drive business advantages. Therefore, proper and effective information in
education is an inevitable demand. Being is a key provider of information, the library of an academic
institution should have a dedicated website or webpage to provide the online services and information to
the users.
In last ten years or so, ten private universities came into existence in West Bengal. These Universities are:
Table A: List of private universities in West Bengal with their year of establishment
Name of the Private Universities in West Bengal Year of Establishment
1. Adamas University-[AU] 2014
2. Amity University (Kolkata)-[AUK] 2014
3. Brainware University-[BWU] 2016
4. JIS University-[JISU] 2015
5. Seacom Skills University-[SSU] 2014
6. Sister Nivedita University-[SNU] 2018
7. St. Xavier University-[SXU] 2017
8. Techno India University-[TIU] 2012
9. The Neotia University-[TNU] 2015
10. University of Engineering and Management (Kolkata)-[UEMK] 2014
The present study is an exploration to find out how the above listed ten private universities are giving
importance to their library and how they are providing effective information, links of various library
services on their institutional websites.
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
3 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
SN Archana and SH Kabir (2010) evaluated the web presence of the engineering college libraries in
Kerala. They found majority of the websites of engineering colleges in Kerala had least representation of
their respective libraries.
A study by Kannappanavar, B.U., Jayaprakash and M MBachalapur (2011), analised the content of
Engineering College Library Websites in Tumkur District, Karnataka. They found that Engineering
College libraries were not maintaining a separate library website, and limited information was provided
through their institution website.
PreedipBalaji B. and Vinit Kumar, (2011) assessed the use of web-technologies in delivering information
services by technological universities in southern India as presented in library websites. The study found
that the rate of dissemination of information services through web was satisfactory.
Wijayaratne, Anusha (2013) found that the university libraries had marked their presence gracefully in the
cyberspace in Sri Lanka.
Savitha, K. S (2016) examined the contents of websites of deemed university libraries of Karnataka,
India. The analysis revealed that a good number of universities provided general and basic information
about their libraries in their respective websites. Majority of the universities offered access facility to their
subscribed databases, OPAC etc.
Sandeep Kumar and Mahendra Singh Mir (2017) studied the web content of the library websites of
Central Universities of Central India and they found that all four Central Universities had Web OPAC,
access to digital library, database access, and plagiarism checking software, etc. on their library pages.
Soumya Singh Tomar, Mohammed Imtiaz Ahmed and Amarjit Kumar Singh (2018) found, in their study
on National Law University libraries in India, that the universities had poor representation of their web-
identity. They suggested that the universities required giving a thought on this regard.
A recent study by AnanyaDasgupta and Meghmala Gupta (2019) examined the library web presence of
technical colleges of West Bengal through content analysis and they found that the websites are
developed as a routine organizational matter, rather than a conscious process.
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
4 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
4. OBJECTIVES
The present study was initiated with the following objectives:
To find out the amount of effective information given about their libraries by the private
universities in West Bengal on their institutional website
To find out the content on library provided in the library page or website
To find out whether minimum basic information about the library were given or not
To do a comparative study of contents of library webpage or website
To evaluate the importance given on the web presence of the library on university website
To rank the universities based on the score on the criteria of evaluation
5. METHODOLOGY
At first, an in-depth search has been conducted using the websites of the private universities of West
Bengal, available in UGC website during March09, 2019 to April 09, 2019.
Table B: List of private universities in West Bengal with their Website URL
University Website URL
1. Adamas University-[AU] www.adamasuniversity.ac.in
2. Amity University (Kolkata)-[AUK] www.amity.edu/Kolkata/
3. Brainware University-[BWU] www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in/
4. JIS University-[JISU] www.jisuniversity.ac.in/
5. Seacom Skills University-[SSU] www.seacomskillsuniversity.org/
6. Sister Nivedita University-[SNU] www.snuniv.ac.in/
7. St. Xavier University-[SXU] www.sxuk.edu.in/
8. Techno India University-[TIU] www.technoindiauniversity.ac.in/
9. The Neotia University-[TNU] www.tnu.in/
10. University of Engineering and Management (Kolkata)-[UEMK]
www.uem.edu.in/uem-kolkata/
To analyse the content and accessibility features of the library pages or site on the institutional websites
of the private universities in West Bengal, the following criteria were set:
Availability of Library Webpage or Library website or Library section in a page in the websites
of the Universities to access from outside of the campus.
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
5 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
Availability of basic information about the Library in the library webpage/ university website on
the internet.
Under this category, some subcategories were framed such as, About the Library and Library
Rules, Collections, Facilities, Services and Departments, Membership and Circulations, Library
Management Software used, Library Layout, Annual Library Report.
Availability of WebOPAC in the library webpage/ university website on the internet.
Availability of link to access the online resources of the library in the university website.
Availability of information on Librarian, library staff members and web contact form to
communicate with the library in the university website.
To rank the universities in terms of the web presence of their library.
To compare and give rank to the universities a weight age or score has been given under each category to
the universities and the availability of the features were marked with Y (Yes) and N (No) in the tables
based on the findings.
6. SCOPE AND LIMITATION
This present study would help to understand the web presence of the libraries of the private universities in
the state of West Bengal. As the study has been carried out during March 09, 2019 to April 09, 2019
therefore, analysis has been done on the basis of data collected in this period only. At present, the features
of the websites of the said private universities may be or may not be changed.
This study did not analyze the quality of the websites. Therefore, there is a scope of a qualitative research
of websites of the universities.
7. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
The websites of the private universities of West Bengal, available in UGC website during March 09, 2019
to April 09, 2019, are accessed to analysed the contents on library and features available on the library
page/website. The finding has been categorized in six different sections and their subsections. The
analysis of the findings is discussed below.
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
6 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
7.1 Availability of Library website or Library webpage in university websites on the Internet
Table 1: Availability of Library website or Library webpage
University
Dedicated
Library
Website
available on
the internet
A dedicated Menu
in the Homepage or
a page on “Library”
in the University
website on the
internet
Library as a sub-
section in a
certain page in
the University
website on the
internet
No Site/ Page/
Section on Library
in the University
Website on
Internet
Total
Score
(Score 3) (Score 2) (Score 1) (Score 0)
AU N N N Y 0
AUK N N Y - 1
BWU N Y N - 2
JISU N N N Y 0
SSU N N N Y 0
SNU N Y N - 2
SXU N Y N - 2
TIU N Y N - 2
TNU N Y N - 2
UEMK N N Y - 1
It is very clear from Table-1 that, none of the universities had a dedicated library website on the internet.
Only 5(50%) universities have a dedicated menu in the homepage or a page on “Library” in the university
website. A weightage was given to AUK and UEMK as in the homepage of UEMK website, a section,
labeled as “Library”, a small description about the library and its collection, of IEM-UEM Group was
given, not specifically of Kolkata campus and in case of AUK (www.amity.edu) main page, a brief
description about Library was found which was not specifically for Kolkata campus.
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
7 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
7.2 Availability of basic information about the Library in the library webpage/ university website
on the internet
Table 2: Availability of basic information about the Library
AUK posted a photo with a caption “Central Library” under Infrastructure section but no other
information is available in their website, though some links to the libraries of the campuses other than
Kolkata were available. When a search was made in their “http://www.amity.edu” website then a page
was found on Central Library where the area of the library, brief information about collections on books
University
Information on
Lib
rary
an
d L
ibra
ry R
ule
s
Coll
ecti
on
s
Faci
liti
es,
Ser
vic
es a
nd
Dep
art
men
ts
Mem
ber
ship
an
d
Cir
cula
tio
ns
Lib
rary
Man
ag
emen
t
Soft
ware
use
d
Lib
rary
La
yo
ut
An
nu
al
Lib
rary
Rep
ort
Total
Score
Score
1
Score
1
Score
1
Score
1
Score
1
Score
1
Score
1
AU N N N N N N N 0
AUK N N N N N N N 0
BWU Y Y Y Y Y N N 5
JISU N N N N N N N 0
SSU N N N N N N N 0
SNU Y N Y N N N N 2
SXU Y Y Y Y Y N Y 6
TIU Y Y N N N N N 2
TNU Y Y N N N N N 2
UEMK Y Y N N N N N 2
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
8 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
and journals and databases, a link to digital library were available. But no link to library was found in the
webpage of Amity University Kolkata campus.
BWU and SXU provided a dedicated menu on Library at the homepage of the university website.
Information on Services, Resources, Library Rules, Membership, links to e-journal, WebOPAC, Library
Management Software, etc. were available. SXU provided latest annual report on library.
SNU provided a sub-menu on library under ‘Campus Life’ menu on the homepage of their university
website. They provided a very brief description about their library, collections and services, but that
information was insufficient.
UEMK, TIU and TNU provided very brief information on library and its collections, which is very
insufficient for any user. In UEM website, a small description about the library of IEM-UEM Group was
given but not specifically for Kolkata campus.
AU, JISU, SSU did not provide any link to their university library through the university website.
7.3 Availability of WebOPAC
Table 3: Availability of WebOPAC
University
Link to WebOPAC available in the
homepage/ in library website/ in a section
under any page in the university website on
the internet
Link to WebOPACNOT
available on the internet Total
Score
Score 1 Score 0
AU N Y 0
AUK N Y 0
BWU Y - 1
JISU N Y 0
SSU N Y 0
SNU N Y 0
SXU Y - 1
TIU N Y 0
TNU N Y 0
UEMK N Y 0
From Table-3 it can be seen that, only two universities made WebOPAC link available for the users in
their university website. Surprisingly, in case of all the other 8 universities no OPAC link was available
on their university website.
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
9 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
7.4 Availability of link to access the online resources of the library
Table 4: Availability of link to access the e-resources of the library
University
E-resource Links available in the homepage/ in library website/ in a
section under any page in the university website on the internet
Total
Score E-journals/
Databases/ e-
books
Open
Educational
courseware
(MOOCs)
National
Digital
Library/
Other
Digital
Libraries
Other e-
resources
NOT
available
Score 1 Score 1 Score 1 Score 1 Score 0
AU N N N N Y 0
AUK Y N N Y - 2
BWU Y N Y Y - 3
JISU N N N N Y 0
SSU N N N N Y 0
SNU N N N N Y 0
SXU Y N Y Y - 3
TIU N N N N Y 0
TNU N N N N Y 0
UEMK N N N N Y 0
Table-4 reveals that seven universities did not provide any link to the e-resources of their library at their
homepage or library webpage. AUK provided a link “Amizone” at the homepage on their university
website. There the users would get information about e-resources of the university. BWU and SXU very
effectively provided the links to various e-resources.
7.5 Availability of information onLibrary staff members and social media presence
During the study it has been found that only Brainware University and Seacom Skills University provided
information about the Librarians of their libraries. Brainware University mentioned the name and email-
ids of their Librarian, Asst. Librarian and contact no. of library on their WebOPAC page. Seacom Skills
University mentioned about their Librarian in the faculty profile segment in their website, but no contact
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
10 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
details of the library or library staff members was mentioned. Table-5 shows the result in the tabular
form.
Table 5: Availability of information on Library staff members and social media presence of the library
University
Availability of
information about
Librarian and Library
staff members, including
contact details
Availability
of Contact
number of
Library
Web-form for
Library to
communicate/
Blog/ Social
Media presence
NOT
Available Total
Score
Score 1 Score 1 Score 1 Score 0
AU N N N Y 0
AUK N N N Y 0
BWU Y Y N - 2
JISU N N N Y 0
SSU Y N N - 1
SNU N N N Y 0
SXU N N N Y 0
TIU N N N Y 0
TNU N N N Y 0
UEMK N N N Y 0
Only 20% of the universities had provided information on Library staff members. Social media presence
of all the university libraries was nil.
7.6 Ranking of the universities based on the scores in terms of the web presence of their library
Based on the above findings and analysis, an attempt was made to rank the 10 private universities in West
Bengal. As the study has been pursued during March 09-April 09, 2019, therefore, the ranking of these
universities were determined based on the scores given to them as per the criteria was set for the study.
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
11 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
It is found that Brainware University ranked on the top while St. Xavier University placed at the second
position based on the results. JIS and Adamas University did not score well and placed at the last position
due to lack of information about their university library on their websites.
Table 6: Ranking of the universities based on the scores in Table 1-5
University Table 1
Score
Table 2
Score
Table 3
Score Table 4
Score Table 5
Score Total
Score
Overall
Rank
Adamas
University-[AU] 0 0 0 0 0 0 6
Amity University (Kolkata)-[AUK]
1 0 0 2 0 3 4
Brainware
University[BWU] 2 5 1 3 2 13 1
JIS University-[JISU]
0 0 0 0 0 0 6
Seacom Skills
University-[SSU] 0 0 0 0 1 1 5
Sister Nivedita University-[SNU]
2 2 0 0 0 4 3
St. Xavier
University-[SXU] 2 6 1 3 0 12 2
Techno India University-[TIU]
2 2 0 0 0 4 3
The Neotia
University-[TNU] 2 2 0 0 0 4 3
University of
Engineering and
Management
(Kolkata)-[UEMK]
1 2 0 0 0 3 4
8. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The study revealed that most of the private universities in West Bengal developed their university
websites as a part of the minimum standard required. As a result the web presence of their library was not
at all satisfactory in most of the cases. Some of the universities tried to provide effective information on
their libraries but need further improvements.
It is recommended to all the universities to develop a separate library website for the university library
with links to useful resources to cater better library service not only for the users within the campus but
IJNGLT, MAY 2019, VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 WWW.IJNGLT.COM
Showcasing university library on the web: a comparative and informetric study of the websites of private universities in West Bengal
12 | P a g e International Journal of Next Generation Library and Technologies (ISSN 2395 – 5201)
also for outside of the campus. All the private universities in West Bengal are relatively new and they are
still in the developmental phase. Therefore, it can be expected that within few years the libraries of all
these universities will come up with better features and technologies to serve the best to the users.
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