The library as information provider: The home page

Many libraries are using the Internet's World Wide Web to provide information for library clients and others. The article begins with a brief discussion of the situation in one country, Iceland, based on a November 1995 questionnaire survey. Among other things, this Icelandic survey looked at library use of the Internet and the ways in which libraries are using the World Wide Web to provide information via a home page. A larger Nordic study, of which this Icelandic study was part, sets the Icelandic findings in a broader context. To take this further into an international setting, content analyses were carried out of the home pages of public libraries and school libraries are om 13 different countries. After a short description of the methodology, the results of these analyses are presented. Based on this, there is a discussion of the purposes for which a library might create a home page on World Wide Web and of the information that might be provided through the home page, depending on the purpose or aim. The final section of the paper deals with issues and problems associated with the creation and maintenance of a library home page.