Content analysis of web-based science subject guides of New Zealand university libraries

Abstract

The study conducted a content analysis of Web-based science subject guides to explore whether New Zealand (NZ) academic reference librarians' actually do create unique subject guides that meet the individual needs of their institutions' curriculum. The analysis focused on the subject coverage of external content links to assess how closely they matched topics in undergraduate course descriptions. Forty one Web-based science subject guides of NZ university libraries were sampled. The study covered seven disciplines: biological sciences, chemistry, computer sciences, geography, mathematics, physics and psychology. The study also assessed the extent to which these Web-based subject guides are promoted in Faculty Web pages. The study found that New Zealand academic reference librarians created Web-based science subject guides that were unique to their institution. They provided access to a range of resources that support current awareness, course tasks, and assignments. Web-based science subject guides overall reflected practices of each discipline, as taught in 2007. However, in many instances resource annotations should be richer and more targeted to more visibly reflect key topics in each science curricula. Only the UC consistently promotion of Web-based science subject guides on Faculty Web pages and course descriptions.