The Bulgarian university libraries in internet

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the content and design of academic library web sites.Design/methodology/approachThe evaluation of the quality of the web sites is carried out on the basis of their function, design, originality, professionalism and efficiency. The quantitative analysis includes areas such as basic information about the library (address, contact information, opening hours, history); access to the electronic resources (OPAC, other electronic information); guides to internet resources (free access or subscribe databases); synchronous and asynchronous online reference services (e‐mail, web forms, chat sessions, audio and video conferencing). Based on these indices, an expert evaluation was carried out, as well as a survey of 42 university libraries, accessible from the web portal of the Ministry of Education and Science, Bulgaria.FindingsThe survey shows that Bulgarian academic library web sites do have a common core of content and many follow the design guidelines, but they still have not come up to expectations as high quality virtual expressions of academic libraries.Originality/valueThis paper presents a comparison of all university libraries in Bulgaria and lays down the prospects to them under the conditions of the so‐called “information age”.