The Quality of Electronic Local History Products: Experience of Development of Criteria and Expertise

Abstract

Libraries provide the variety of electronic local history products to preserve local history and transmit it via remote access. Due to the development of information technologies the quality of these products needs to be evaluated. In the course of study, the authors developed the working definitions of the concepts “Electronic local history products” and “Quality of electronic local history products”. To determine the quality of an electronic local history product, the study considers the existing approaches to their assessment in libraries, museums, archives, as well as in the area of higher education. The article determines the quality criteria, which are formed into four groups: formal, ergonomic, informative and local history. In the course of an expert online survey of 44 practitioners of the central and municipal libraries of the Kemerovo region, the authors coordinated the basic criteria for evaluating the quality of electronic local history products. Based on the developed criteria, there was carried out expert examination of electronic local history products of the V.D. Fedorov State Scientific Library of Kuzbass. The article analyses the digests “Environmental problems of the Kemerovo region” and “Calendar of significant and memorable dates in the Kemerovo region” that prevail on the library’s website. The conformance of quality criteria for calendars of significant and memorable dates and digests published by the library is presented in a matrix format. The study showed that the requirements for the quality of electronic information products in professional press are ambiguous. Specific approaches are required to reflect the local history component. To improve the system of electronic local history products, there is required the constant internal control and expertise of the products presented on the websites. The working list of criteria for their quality is open for completion. In the future, it needs to be approbated on the example of local history products from other libraries.