A Qualitative Study of Web-Mounted Pathfinders Created by Academic Business Libraries

Abstract

The nature of academic business pathfinders or subject guides mounted on the Internet was examined by qualitative content analysis. Specifically, the research sought to understand the concept, purposes and principles of pathfinders; the terminology representing pathfinders; the navigational pathway through the library Website to the pathfinders; and their common contents. Ten Canadian and ten American academic library Websites were sampled for pathfinders on three business topics: company, industry and marketing. Findings showed that the traditional term ‘pathfinder’ was not used on these academic Websites; instead ‘subject guides’ or ‘research guides’ were the most popular synonyms. The content analysis identified that subject guides have two basic functions, which are to facilitate access and to provide a search strategy. Four principles were found for creating Webmounted, subject guides: accessibility, consistency, selectivity, and transparency. The research also found that subject guides are important library finding tools as evidenced by the time and effort devoted to their creation, and their placement on valuable library homepage screen space.