Role of New Zealand special librarians in web publishing

Abstract

This research project investigates the involvement of New Zealand special librarians in Web publishing, and the views of special librarians regarding their perceived role in this activity. The scope of the survey includes Websites, Intranets and Extranets. A questionnaire was sent to a sample of 100 special libraries, randomly chosen from the New Zealand Library Symbols directory. The results indicate that most special librarians are involved to some extent in Web publishing activities on an organisation-wide basis. However, the degree of this involvement is not high. Non-librarian staff are generally more heavily involved in Web publishing than librarians and information professionals - in particular IT professionals. The majority of special librarians believe it is important to be involved in Web publishing for their organisations. Reasons given for this include the fact that librarians are information specialists skilled in organising and classifying data, they can provide quality control for information resources, and they need to keep abreast of the latest technological advancements and raise the profile of the library.