The Use of Web Services for Patron Education and Information by Selected Top University Libraries in USA and India

Abstract

University libraries today are offering several web-based and cloud-based services through their websites and so library websites can be considered as mirrors of the library. This paper discusses the current status of various web-based services offered by selected top university libraries in the USA and in India to educate their patrons. It also tries to identify best practices to be followed by other similar kind of libraries for their readers and students.USA libraries offer on average 30 out of 70 identified services while Indian libraries only offer 6 on average. In this respect, the weakest USA libraries are still stronger than the strongest Indian ones. Traditional bibliographical services in Indian library websites take a larger relative share than in USA websites. Ranking the universities by number of offered library web-services does not fit with their official rankings according to the calculated Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient for the samples selected from USA and India. These findings will be useful to university libraries in developing countries to diversify their service and change their profiles into more modern information centers with higher educational potential.Keywords: Web-based Library services, Library Best practices, Web Tools, Patron Education, Online Education, and Total Quality Management.