WebWatching Telematics For Libraries Project Web Sites

As the EU's Telematics For Libraries programme comes to an end Brian Kelly reviews the Web sites provided by funded projects.

Background

Approximately 100 projects and actions were funded under the EU Telematics for Libraries Programme [1]. Many of the projects will have produced Web sites which provide the services the projects were funded to deliver or reports on their activities. What approaches did the projects take in providing their Web sites? What lessons can be learnt for Fifth Framework projects? In this survey of the technical aspects of the Web site, we try to answer these questions.

Methodology

A small number of Web-based services were used to provide reports on a number of aspects of the Telematics for Libraries project Web sites. The results of the surveys (which took place on 20-21 September 2000) are published in Appendix 1. This appendix also provides links to the services themselves, so that readers can check the results at the time of reading.

The following surveys were carried out:

Server Software

Details of the Web server software used by the service. This information is obtained from Netcraft [2].

HTML Quality

Analyses of the numbers of broken links from the project home page, browser compatibility problems, the number of HTML errors and the size of the project home page. This information is obtained from Dr HTML [3].

Accessibility

The accessibility of the project home page. This information is obtained from Bobby [4].

The 404 Error Page

Whether the 404 error page has been tailored. This information is obtained by linking to a non-existent page.

The robots.txt Page

Whether a robots.txt page has been created. This information is obtained by linking to the robots.txt file.

Aims Of Survey

The aims of this small survey are to:

• Obtain a picture of the Web server and hardware used to host Telematics for Library project Web sites.
• Observe the conformance to HTML standards.
• Observe the quality of the Web sites through the number of broken links.

Summary Of Findings

Details of availability of a Web site for the projects is given below.

Details of server type is given below.

Discussion Of Findings

This small survey has attempted to provide a picture of usage of Web sites by Telematics For Libraries project Web sites.

There are several caveats which should be noted. For example many of the broken links on the project home pages are likely to be to the Telematics For Libraries Web site, which changed URLs recently (from <http://www2.echo.lu/libraries/en/libraries.html>). Projects which have finished will be unlikely to update such links.

However the survey has helped to identify some examples of good practice and some problem areas, including:

• A number of project Web sites provide robots.txt files which ensure that only quality resources will be indexed by search engines such as AltaVista. the RIDDLE's [5] project's robots.txt file is a good example.
• On some project Web sites, however, all robots are banned, which means that the Web site will never by indexed by search engines such as AltaVista.
• Some project Web sites provide a tailored 404 error message which provides useful navigational aids for the end user, such as links to key areas of the Web site or a search facility. The CAMILE's [6] project's 404 provides a good example.

The area of most concern, however, is probably the number of project Web sites which are no longer available (about 20%).

Future Work

The methodology for monitoring and evaluating remote Web sites using Web tools will be developed. It is intended to carry out a more rigorous survey of projects funding by the Fifth Framework DIGICULT programme [7] and to publish the findings in the Cultivate Interactive Web magazine [8].

References

1. Telematics for Libraries - Projects, European Commission
   URL: <http://www.cordis.lu/libraries/en/projects.html>
2. Netcraft
   URL: <http://www.netcraft.com/>
3. Netmechanic
   URL: <http://www.netmechanic.com/>
4. CAST's Bobby, CAST
   URL: <http://www.cast.org/bobby/>
5. robots.txt File, RIDDLE Project Web Site
   URL: <http://www.cwi.nl/robots.txt>
6. 404 Error Message, CAMILE Project Web Site
   URL: <http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~camile/foo>
7. Digital heritage and cultural content,
   URL: <http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/>
8. Cultivate Interactive,
   URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/>

Appendix 1

A summary of the findings is given in the following table.

The information in the table was collected on 21 September 2000.

Notes

No Web site

The following projects appear never to have had a Web site:

• COBRA (no. 18)
• EDILIBE I (no. 31)
• EFILA97 (no. 37)
• ELITE (no. 40)
• ELSA (no. 41)
• IFLA-EU (no. 59)
• INCIPIT (no. 63)
• ION (no. 64)
• MASTER (no. 73)
• MORE (no. 78)
• OLUIT (no. 82)
• ONE (no. 83)
• ONE II (no. 84)
• PLAIN (no. 85)
• USEMARCON (no. 100)
• VERITY (no. 102)

Project Web site no longer available

The following project domains are no longer available:

• DALI (no. 21) at http://dallas.ucd.ie/
• DECOMATE (no. 25) at http://cdservera.blpes.lse.ac.uk/
• ILIERS (no. 60) at http://195.97.146.102/
• MOBILE (no. 77) at http://www.efc.co.uk/
• MURIEL (no. 80) at http://www.teles.de/
• SELF (no. 90) at http://www.sppb.se/
• SESAME (no. 91) at http://www.3di.it/
• SOCKER (no. 92) at http://mediator.uni-c.dk/
• SPRINTEL (no. 93) at http://www.iol.ie/
• SR TARGET / PARAGON (no. 94) at http://mediator.uni-c.dk/
• VAN EYCK (no. 101) at http://www.hart.bbk.ac.uk/

Project Web page no longer available

The URL of the project's Web page is no longer available, although the domain is still available:

• ARCA (no. 2) at http://www.pisa.intecs.it/projects/ARCA/
• BAMBI (no. 3) at http://www.ilc.pi.cnr.it/bambi.html
• BORGES (no. 8) at http://borges.compapp.dcu.ie/
• CDBIB (no. 15) at http://www.konbib.nl/kb/sbo/proj/cdbib/
• DECIMAL (no. 24) at http://www.mmu.ac.uk/h-ss/dic/research/decimal.htm
• EDIL (no. 32) at http://www.inist.fr/accueil/edil.htm
• EFILA+ (no. 36) at http://www.ewos.be/fora/index.htm#efila
• FACIT (no. 52) at http://www.komm.ruc.dk/FACIT/
• HISTORIA (no. 57) at http://www.wmin.ac.uk/~vassilis/historia.htm
• PUBLICA (no. 87) at http://www.croydon.gov.uk/publica/
• REACTIVE TELECOM (no. 86) at http://ris.niaa.org.uk/reactive.htm
• TRANSLIB (no. 96) at http://peterpan.uc3m.es/proyectos/translib/HomePage.htm

Survey Limitations

It should be noted that there may be limitations in the services used to carry out this survey. For example, it has been noticed that the Netmechanic link-checking service does not understand the HTML element <BASE> which can provide a alternative directory for relative URLs. This was the case for the MALVINE home page, which contains no broken links and not 26 as reported by Netmechanic.

This paragraph was added on 18 October 2000.

Author Details

Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
England
BA2 7AY

URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk>
Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

For citation purposes:
Brian Kelly, "WebWatching Telematics For Libraries Project Web Sites", Exploit Interactive, issue 7, 2nd October 2000
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/webwatch/>

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