Resumo de Evaluating Your Digital Information Services

Evaluating Your Digital Information Services
Section 1: Introduction
Traditionally, libraries have been print-based. Increasingly, more services can and are being delivered digitally. Students and academics can retrieve full texts and a host of other services directly at the desktop.
Higher education institutions are taking advantage of new developments for many reasons. These include collaboration and co-operation between other institutions and organisations and improved access to a wide-range of collections and resources (particularly of benefit to distance learners and part-time students). Often electronic access enables better search facilities.
One of the main influences in the uptake of digital information developments has been the funding made available. This has enabled institutions to plan, research and implement specific projects. For example, ELib phases provided made £15 million available over 3 years. "eLib phase 3 has had an important impact on HE libraries by accelerating the uptake of new technologies in a practical, user services oriented way" (ESYS 2001). Overall co-ordination of specific projects has helped to avoid duplication of research, and the disseminated research has informed researchers and practitioners alike. The digital services are increasingly an integral part of institutional networked services.
Section 2: What?s in a name?
The terminology is confusing. The terms "digital library", ("digital" or "electronic") "information services" and "electronic library" are interchangeable. Some theorists also refer to "hybrid libraries" which "aim to integrate new technologies, electronic products and services already in libraries with the traditional functions of a library" (JISC phase 3 2000)
Realistically, all terms point to the same type of development and it is the incorporation of new developments into the existing and successful library model which the "hybrid library" refers to. This is often the aim of many institutions ? using technology to enhance and improve existing services.
In the commercial sector, and increasingly in education, the term "digital asset management" has been used. "First it was document management. The next year it became knowledge management. Now it?s called content management. Next year who knows?" (Doering 2001). Digital asset management essentially refers to the technologies used to locate and retrieve digital information content. Therefore, as the systems used in HE are becoming more sophisticated, the terminology may change to reflect the business sector.
However, what?s in a name? For the purposes of this paper, I seek to address the issue of evaluation in the context of electronic information services in general. These include the one or more online services and electronic resources , like the following examples: short loan collections; exam papers, course materials, theses, student projects and book chapters. These can come in a variety of formats, including text-based, multimedia files and audio visual files.
Digital information services can include any combination of the media cited above, but it is more than a series of hypertext links or electronic journal services.
There will be more information available on current work on digital information services in HE after the responses from a survey which we are conducting next month. However, two projects with whom we are working closely, are UCEEL (at UCE) and UDEL (at University of Derby). These are two useful working examples of an HEFCE-funded project (UCEEL) and a project entirely self-funded by the institution (UDEL). I intend to draw on these projects to provide examples of evaluation techniques and more specifically, to highlight aspects of good practice. In addition, other projects around the U.K. and abroad will inform our research.

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