DESIGNING A LIBRARY PORTAL FOR ALL NATIONS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE-A CASE STUDY

Oware HenriettaFinal year MLIS

Bharathidasan UniversityTrichy 24

INTRODUCTION

Providing the right information to the right user at the right time is a major

challenge for libraries. In recent years, digital resources are growing and developing

very fast creating challenges in information searching, service provision and resource

discovery.

Universities and other research organizations are providing significant financial

support to libraries. A large proportion of this is going into the subscription of thousands

of online resources each year, such as online databases, e-journals and e-books.

In this context, it is very much relevant and immense need for the libraries

associated to higher academic and research institutions have to design a web portal or

internet based information system that give single points access to all the knowledge

resources pertaining to the curricula, programmes offered and as to the customized to the

information requirements of the stakeholders. So the present study is made on attempt

to design a prototype model for All Nations University College Library users and the

staff.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

• The main aim of the library portal is to fulfill information

requirements of the faculty members, students,

researchers in the All Nations University.

• To design a web enabled information system that links all

the scholarly resources, services, facilities as to the

requirements of university programmes, functions and the

users.

HOW DOES PORTAL DIFFER FROM WEB SITE, AND SEARCH ENGINE

INTERNET PORTALS originated as the librarian of the Web. The

word "portal,” meaning “door,” has been used to characterize Web sites commonly

known for offering search and navigation tools. (Circa 1996) a portal was used to

catalog the available content from the Internet, acting as a “hub” from which users

could locate and link to desired content.

A WEB SITE is a related collection of World Wide Web (WWW) files

that includes a beginning file called a homepage. A company or an individual tells

how to get to their Web site by giving the address of their home page. From the

home page, one can get to all the other pages on their site.

SEARCH ENGINES attempt to help a user to locate desired information

or resources by seeking matches to user-specified key words.

COMPONENTS OF LIBRARY PORTALS

A LIBRARY‘S WEB PRESENCE. A library website can be made up of three types of content: Information about the library - staff directories, departmental descriptions, maps of the building, hours, etc.

ELECTRONIC VERSIONS OF TRADITIONAL LIBRARY SERVICES - online tutorials, book renewals, interlibrary loan requests and status reports, requests for purchase, online chat/reference, virtual tours of the building(s), etc.

ACCESS TO LIBRARY CONTENT - catalogs, indexes, full-text magazines and journals, digitized special collections, free and commercial eBooks, government documents, freely accessible Internet resources, electronic encyclopedias and dictionaries, licensed content from vendors, etc.

USER AUTHENTICATION: Also known as patron authentication, determines whether clients are eligible for service by checking the clients against a library database. This authentication is usually done with a proxy server to limit access to resources the patron is authorized to use.

FUNCTIONS OF A PORTAL

EASE OF USE: The foremost feature to be considered is the ease-of-use,

which can be determined by the effectively organized home page.

SEARCH AND NAVIGATION: a successful portal support s its users in an

efficient search for contents.

PERSONALIZATION: each user gets only the information which is

specifically tailored to his/her needs.

INTEGRATION OF APPLICATIONS/BUSINES INTELLIGENCE: a

portal can integrate and support a specific application type, for example:

an Application Service Provider (ASP) application

Business Intelligence (BI) functionality

Support for e-commerce

 

THE ROLE OF THE LIBRARIAN AS SELECTOR AND ORGANIZER OF INFORMATION ON THE WEB

• CONTENT: Academic librarians provide credible content that has been

selected for a specific learning community.

• COPYRIGHT: Librarians provide guidance in determining which web-

based materials are under copyright and seek permission for use of these

works with the Copyright Clearance Center and other agencies.

• CUSTOMER SERVICE: Librarians have developed a number of ways

to extend person-to-person reference service in a digital environment that

are applicable in supporting portal use on campus.

• PORTAL EDUCATORS: Librarians as Information Architects teach the

clients how to navigate the library portal and make use of the various

features offered by such portals.

MAJOR LIBRARY PORTALS

http://www.oclc.org/middleeast/en/global/default.htm

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE (NLM) PORTAL

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/

KNUST LIBRARY (KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY)

• http://www.knust.edu.gh/pages/sections.php?siteid=knust&mid=15&sid=86

PROFILE OF ALL NATIONS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE – KOFORIDUA, GHANA

All Nations University College (ANUC) is the brain child of Dr Samuel

Donkor, Senior Pastor of All Nations Full Gospel Church. ANUC was the answer

to the question, “What can we do to help for the development of Africa?” The

answer, focuses on higher education. The Diaspora in Toronto from over 60 other

countries accepted the challenge to build All Nations University College.

It became the mission of the All Nations Full Gospel Church and later the

All Nations International Development Agency (ANIDA), an NGO which

facilitated the development of the University. After many years of consultations

with the Ministry of Education, the University finally presented its Master Plan to

the Ministry and received the authority to establish the All Nations University

College in May 1996 from the National Accreditation Board. The University was

incorporated in the same year and has since worked toward the realization of the

collective dream.

DEPARTMENTS

• OIL & GAS ENGINEERING: The Bachelor of Engineering (Oil and Gas)

programme is aimed at training indigenous engineers who can participate in the

development of the operations, and in the near future, direct the operations

consistent with, and procure equipment required for, operations at conditions

favorable to Ghana’s national interests.

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING: The Department of Biomedical Engineering

was established for the purpose of contributing to the growing health needs of

Ghana in the area of hospital equipment and technical expertise. The department is currently focusing on the following research areas:• Biosensors• Medical Image Processing• Bio signal processing• Clinical engineering- Rehabilitation engineering and Bioinformatics• Biomaterials

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING:• Wireless sensor networks• VLSI design• Embedded systems• Networking• Digital signal processing• Programmable logic controller.• Digital Image Processing

Electronics & Communications Engineering Lab

Other Departments are: BIBLICAL STUDIES

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION : with the following options

• Accounting and Finance

• Banking and Finance

• Marketing

• Human Resource Management

• Entrepreneurial Studies

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES: The Department offers general

courses in Language skills (English, French and communication). Mathematics,

Physics, Chemistry, Sociology, Research Methodology, Psychology, Law and other

humanities and science courses, for a well-grounded education

ALL NATIONS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

ANUC has a library with a physical stock of over 40,000 (forty thousand)

volumes of books that cover all courses offered by the University College including

Students Theses and CDs.

ALL NATIONS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

Table:1 Department wise Faculty, Students, and Staff

PROGRAMME

NO. OF

STUDENTS

NO. OF

FACULTY PHD MPHIL MASTERSADMIN STAFF

BUS. ADM 2,025 30 6 10 14 50

OIL & GAS 285 10 2 - 8

COMP. SCIEN 509 14 1 1 12

ELEC.& COMM 421 18 - - 18

BIOM. ENGG. 413 11 1 1 9

BIB. STUDIES 517 10 1 3 6

HUMANITIES 86 11 1 2 8

TOTAL 4256 104 12 17 75

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

All Nations University is a university with a large number of students. The

university has a library with only printed copies of documents and some CDs which

covers the courses being offered to the students. Although students visit the internet

to seek information but may not get the relevant requirements.

Librarians have become increasingly aware that the multiplication of electronic

resources is a problem for end-users. Users find it difficult to locate the most

appropriate database or resource to search for information relevant to their need.

Even if they locate the right resources, since each service tends to have its own

unique interface, they may struggle to search it effectively.

This new reality translates into the need for making library web environments

effective and useful. Hence the present study ‘Designing Library Portal for All

Nations University College: A Case Study’ has taken up by the researcher.

DESIGNING A LIBRARY PORTAL

IDENTIFYING THE USERS’ GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS: The ultimate

goal of effective Web design is to arrange your site so that it anticipates your users’

needs and expectations. Hence identifications of user needs and desires in accessing the

information resources has been made to design the study.

DEFINING THE SITE’S CONTENT AREAS : Once the content has been identified

the researcher has completely explode the site and accessed the extent of the relevance

and the usefulness of these resources according to the users of All Nations University

College Library.

ORGANIZING THE CONTENT AREAS: The content that were exploded, analyzed

and reviewed are organized with relevant links and heading that was hierarchically and

associate with the programmes and the services of the university.

 

FREE WEBSITES FOR WEB DESIGNING (open Access)

  The present study use the free and open access website/web portal software tool to

design the All Nations University Library Portal a review of some of the open source website

developing tools were given below.

Homestead

Open Source Web Design

Fullsail

Wix

Terapad.com

Webs

Moonfruit

Yola

Webnode.com

DESIGNING A LIBRARY PORTAL FOR ANUC

ALL NATIONS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PORTALhttp://felopat.webnode.com

PORTAL CONTENTS The ANUC portal home pages contains information about online databases,

journals, books, theses and dissertations, conferences, patents and standards, etc., which are freely available on the web.

Library Collections: All Nations University Library having various collection like Books, Journals, Magazines, Newsletters, CDs, Theses, Back volumes, etc., This page the portal gives access to all these resources.

Electronic Resources : All Nations University library portal provides electronic resources search as bibliographic databases, full text databases, Search Engines, Subject Gateways and Reference styles(open access) for all students, and faculty members and other users on their various subjects.

SUBJECT GATEWAYS: Subject Gateways for the various courses offered in All nations University College. Example: SOSIG, BUBL, Cs Computer Science, Ads arts and humanities data services, etc.

SEARCH ENGINES: will enable the all Nations University users to browse on the web through these search engines such as Scirus, NDLTD, Journal TOC, Canada.com, Google, Big search engine index and Hotbox.

 Library Services Chat with Librarian

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION In the age of information explosion, when everybody is talking of information

overload, satisfying users’ information needs in a simple, personalized and efficient

way is becoming a challenge for library and information centers.

Just subscribing to online sources does not serve the purpose until and unless the

users are informed about them so that such resources are fully utilized.

The budget at the disposal of libraries is limited and the demand for information by

the researchers is increasing, whereas the time at their disposal is limited.

Hence, such portals are important as they are user friendly and provide information

through a single window.

It is extremely useful for researchers as they can find all the information related to

their discipline at one place.