Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Keynote address: Involving the customer in library planning and decision making
- 3 Denmark's Electronic Research Library: evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests
- 4 Beyond the guidelines: assessment of the usability and accessibility of distributed services from the users’ perspective
- 5 Online services versus online chaos: evaluating online services in a Greek academic library
- 6 The Hellenic Academic Libraries Consortium (HEAL-Link) and its effect on library services in Greece: the case of Aristotle University library system
- 7 Information seeking in large-scale resource discovery environments: users and union catalogues
- 8 A ‘joined-up’ electronic journal service: user attitudes and behaviour
- 9 Climbing the ladders and sidestepping the snakes: achieving accessibility through a co-ordinated and strategic approach
- 10 The impact of library and information services on health professionals’ ability to locate information for patient care
- 11 We know we are making a difference but can we prove it? Impact measurement in a higher education library
- 12 Proving our worth? Measuring the impact of the public library service in the UK
- 13 Outcomes and impacts, dollars and sense: are libraries measuring up?
- 14 Longitude II: assessing the value and impact of library services over time
- 15 The use of electronic journals in academic libraries in Castilla y León
- 16 The integration of library activities in the academic world: a practitioner's view
- 17 Monitoring PULMAN's Oeiras Manifesto Action Plan
- 18 Enabling the library in university systems: trial and evaluation in the use of library services away from the library
- 19 Towards an integrated theory of digital library success from the users’ perspective
- 20 The role of digital libraries in helping students attend to source information
- 21 A DiVA for every audience: lessons learned from the evaluation of an online digital video library
- 22 Usability evaluation of Ebrary and OverDrive e-book online systems
- 23 Tearing down the walls: demand for e-books in an academic library
- Index
5 - Online services versus online chaos: evaluating online services in a Greek academic library
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Keynote address: Involving the customer in library planning and decision making
- 3 Denmark's Electronic Research Library: evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests
- 4 Beyond the guidelines: assessment of the usability and accessibility of distributed services from the users’ perspective
- 5 Online services versus online chaos: evaluating online services in a Greek academic library
- 6 The Hellenic Academic Libraries Consortium (HEAL-Link) and its effect on library services in Greece: the case of Aristotle University library system
- 7 Information seeking in large-scale resource discovery environments: users and union catalogues
- 8 A ‘joined-up’ electronic journal service: user attitudes and behaviour
- 9 Climbing the ladders and sidestepping the snakes: achieving accessibility through a co-ordinated and strategic approach
- 10 The impact of library and information services on health professionals’ ability to locate information for patient care
- 11 We know we are making a difference but can we prove it? Impact measurement in a higher education library
- 12 Proving our worth? Measuring the impact of the public library service in the UK
- 13 Outcomes and impacts, dollars and sense: are libraries measuring up?
- 14 Longitude II: assessing the value and impact of library services over time
- 15 The use of electronic journals in academic libraries in Castilla y León
- 16 The integration of library activities in the academic world: a practitioner's view
- 17 Monitoring PULMAN's Oeiras Manifesto Action Plan
- 18 Enabling the library in university systems: trial and evaluation in the use of library services away from the library
- 19 Towards an integrated theory of digital library success from the users’ perspective
- 20 The role of digital libraries in helping students attend to source information
- 21 A DiVA for every audience: lessons learned from the evaluation of an online digital video library
- 22 Usability evaluation of Ebrary and OverDrive e-book online systems
- 23 Tearing down the walls: demand for e-books in an academic library
- Index
Summary
Introduction
In recent years Greek academic libraries have moved from providing only traditional services to the provision of hybrid services, keeping a balance between traditional and electronic services. The financial support that Greek libraries received from the European Commission (EC) assisted them in employing electronic services to meet the demands of our information society. Currently some academic libraries are undergoing the process of assessing their new electronic services in order to evaluate their use and improve their efficiency. One such is the Central Library of the Higher Technological Educational Institution of Thessaloniki (ATEI-T). This paper presents the outcome of an ongoing independent study carried out during 2005 by the Deltos Research Group, which aims to investigate user satisfaction with online library services and accessibility issues relating to library websites.
Community support framework programmes for Greek libraries
The process of modernizing library services began in 1996, when Greek academic libraries participated in the Second Community Support Framework (SCSF) programme and its special Action of the Operational Programme for Education and Initial Training (EPEAEK in Greek: www.epeaek.gr). Before the SCSF programme, libraries’ lack of information technology (IT) and electronic information resources (EIR), qualified staff and financial resources hindered their efforts to provide adequate services. In addition, the existing teaching and learning methods inhibit library development, and university structures and processes often act as barriers to new ideas and influences introduced by a few professional librarians (Krikelas, 1984; Birk and Karageorgiou, 1988; Skepastianou, 1993; Keller, 1993; Zachos, 1995; Garoufallou, 2003; Garoufallou and Siatri, 1999).
The SCSF programme aimed to modernize and develop library services and establish new IT-based services, to automate library functions, to enrich their collections, to complete retrospective cataloguing, and to increase the number of qualified personnel. New studies show that Greek academic libraries, with support from the SCSF programme, have managed to overcome many difficulties and move towards a more electronic environment (see, for example, Garoufallou et al., 2004).
Nowadays, Greek academic libraries participate in the Third Community Support Framework (TCSF) (second EPEAEK), which runs from 2000 to 2006. The programme focuses on developing portals, digital libraries, digitizing collections, and improving services based on the EIR.
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- Libraries Without Walls 6Evaluating the Distributed Delivery of Library Services, pp. 35 - 44Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2006