Evaluating municipal websites: A methodological comparison of three think-aloud variants

Usability methods have received relatively little methodological attention within the field of E-Government. This paper aims to address this gap by reporting on a usability test of the municipal website of Deventer (the Netherlands), carried out by means of three variants of the think-aloud method (concurrent/retrospective think-aloud protocols and constructive interaction). These three methods had proved successful in a previous evaluation of a different municipal website, yet we decided to replicate our study in order to investigate whether the three methods would reveal different results when applied to another municipal website with a different information architecture. The results of our study showed that, as in the previous municipal website evaluation, the three evaluation methods were largely comparable in terms of output. Nevertheless, we did find a number of differences between the present and previous municipal website evaluation regarding the workings of the three methods—differences that could be explained by the different information architectures of the municipal websites tested. This suggests that the three evaluation methods might indeed work differently depending on the nature of the website that is being evaluated, and calls for more research into the effect of task type on the validity of evaluation methods.     

The accessibility of Chinese local government Web sites: An exploratory study

With the rapid development of Chinese e-government, Chinese citizens are encouraged to access e-government services as their convenience. However, the accessibility of Chinese e-government Web sites has been overlooked. This research study tries to provide an overview of the accessibility of Chinese local government Web sites. Three hundred twenty-four Chinese local government Web sites were examined to find out how accessible they are with reference to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG) published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This research found that all the surveyed Chinese e-government Web sites failed one or more W3C's accessibility measures and thus many disabled Chinese people may have substantial problems to access them. Several valuable recommendations are made based on the research findings and the China's actual conditions.     

Seeking electronic information from government resources: A comparative analysis of two communities' web searching of municipal government websites

This study examines queries submitted through two municipal government websites over a 3-year period to discover patterns in information seeking that current web log analysis literature have not discovered or addressed. The findings reveal: in spite of subtle differences strong similarities remain between two different communities' information needs from municipal government websites; demographic variables and close physical proximity do not appear to affect these similarities; there appears to be a belief that municipal government websites can deliver all types of information; and, using methods presented in this paper, municipal governments may better manage their online information resources.     

Accessibility of U.S. federal government home pages: Section 508 compliance and site accessibility statements

U.S. federal websites are required to be accessible for people with impairments. However, despite the existing regulations and guidelines, many federal websites continue to be inaccessible, and accessibility policy statements available on federal websites often do not provide any useful information. This paper provides three contributions to the research literature: (1) an accessibility evaluation of 100 federal home pages using both human and automated methods, (2) a content analysis of existing website accessibility policy statements, and (3) a discussion of the relationship between actual Section 508 compliance and the existing accessibility policy statements on a website. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving policy related to Section 508 compliance for websites.     

Evaluating the readiness of government portal websites in China to adopt contemporary public administration principles

This article aims to evaluate whether the e-government development in China is ready to adopt contemporary public administration principles. In response to these questions, we propose an evaluation framework that integrates the contemporary public administration principles and current web-quality evaluation theories. The proposed framework evaluates government portal websites in terms of their content, function, and construction, following the theory of website evaluation. The indices for each of these dimensions emphasize interactions, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness, all of which reflect the contemporary public administration principles. The validation analysis shows that the proposed evaluation framework well fits the data. The empirical studies suggest that China has implemented advanced e-government services.     

我国市级档案网站综合测评与分析

档案网站是档案信息化建设的关键一环,是档案信息资源共享平台建设的主要依托。本文以我国省会城市、计划单列市、副省级城市档案网站为测评对象,全面测试、考察和评价了测评对象在资源建设、业务建设和网站功能等方面的建设情况。通过比较分析,反映出我国市级档案网站的建设现状,并以此为基础,提出我国市级档案网站建设的对策建议。     

美国2003年最佳免费参考网站评介

文章对美国图书馆协会下属机构MARS评出的美国2003年最佳免费参考网站进行了评介并介绍了MARS的网站评选标准。     

Impacts of government website information on social sciences and humanities in China: A citation analysis

The purpose of this research is to investigate the current state and trend of government website information cited by social science and humanities (SS&H) journal articles in China. The Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) was used as the benchmark and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) journals as the reference samples. It analyzed 204,019 web citations (N = 5,063,237) found in 925,506 articles that were published in CSSCI journals during the 1998–2009 period. The findings unveil that web citations accounted for only 4.03% of the total number of citations (N = 5,063,237), and that citations of Chinese government websites constituted 6.6% of the total number of web citations (N = 204,019). The study disclosed detailed information regarding citations derived from ministries and commissions directly under the State Council websites (N = 69), government online media (N = 7), government website citation subjects (N = 21), and various types of government website information (N = 5). Although government website information has limited influence on SS&H, their impact is currently growing rapidly. In comparison with international research community, influence of government web information on Chinese social science is higher, while its influence on humanities is lower. Essentially, Chinese scholars put emphasis on citing information from authoritative central government websites or highly visible state-owned media information as supporting evidences in their articles. In general, the citation of information from Chinese government website tends to hot social issues of society. Finally, it is necessary to promote the visibility of local government websites, to develop policies and guidelines to encourage the disclosure and the diversity of data, so that there will be more citation balances between social and technological topics.     

Measuring the quality of governmental websites in a controlled versus an online setting with the ‘Website Evaluation Questionnaire’

The quality of governmental websites is often measured with questionnaires that ask users for their opinions on various aspects of the website. This article presents the Website Evaluation Questionnaire (WEQ), which was specifically designed for the evaluation of governmental websites. The multidimensional structure of the WEQ was tested in a controlled laboratory setting and in an online real-life setting. In two studies we analyzed the underlying factor structure, the stability and reliability of this structure, and the sensitivity of the WEQ to quality differences between websites. The WEQ proved to be a valid and reliable instrument with seven clearly distinct dimensions. In the online setting higher correlations were found between the seven dimensions than in the laboratory setting, and the WEQ was less sensitive to differences between websites. Two possible explanations for this result are the divergent activities of online users on the website and the less attentive way in which these users filled out the questionnaire. We advise to relate online survey evaluations more strongly to the actual behavior of website users, for example, by including server log data in the analysis.     

Beyond Section 508: The spectrum of legal requirements for accessible e-government Web sites in the United States

In the United States, a number of federal laws establish requirements that electronic government (e-government) information and services be accessible to individuals with disabilities. These laws affect e-government Web sites at the federal, state, and local levels. To this point, research about the accessibility of e-government Web sites has tended to focus on compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Though Section 508 has the most specific guidelines regarding Web site accessibility, it is hardly the only law establishing accessibility requirements for e-government Web sites, and Section 508 does not apply to many sites that may be required to be accessible by other laws. Until assessment of the accessibility of e-government Web sites accounts for all of the relevant laws, the understanding of levels of accessibility and compliance will be incomplete. This article examines the entire spectrum of federal laws that create legal requirements for accessible e-government Web sites, analyzing the accessibility requirements that the laws establish and the ways in which each of the laws applies to an e-government Web site. This article also suggests research areas that should be included in future assessments to address the entire range of laws related to the accessibility of e-government Web sites. The issues raised in this article have significant relevance to the design and development of e-government, to the assessment of e-government information and services, and to the inclusion in e-government of the 54 million individuals in the United States with disabilities.     

面向残障用户的Web资源易用性控制技术初探

Web资源的易用性及其控制是Web环境下包括数字图书馆在内的信息系统建设的重要课题。在分析易用性控制的技术根源的基础上，本文分别从实施基础、核心任务和根本保障三个环节对Web资源实施易用性控制的技术对策进行了初步探讨。     

我国省级政府网站建设现状分析

通过访问我国27个省级政府网站，论文从网站的相同栏目设置、特色栏目设置及电子政务功能等三个方面总结了政府网站的建设现状，并对这些网站做了分析和评价，最后还提出了省级政府网站改进的措施。     

我国电子政务建设与政府信息公开的关系刍议

论文从几个不同的方面阐述了电子政务建设和政府信息公开这二者之间的关系，提出：我国的电子政务为政府信息公开提供网络平台；电子政务的制度建设与政府信息公开的制度保障密不可分；政府信息公开是我国电子政务建设的前提和基础；政府信息公开是我国电子政务建设的重要目标之一。     

Web2.0在我国省市级公共图书馆应用的调查与分析

选取我国所有省级及省会城市图书馆49所,对其采用Web2.0技术的现状进行调查,涉及到RSS、Blog、Wiki、IM、Tag、Ajax、Toolbar和SNS等在内的10项技术,并对各技术及其应用情况进行了分析。调查结果显示,我国省市级图书馆还处在Web2.0应用的初级阶段,所调查的图书馆中,超过一半的图书馆使用了Web2.0技术为用户提供服务,主要涉及RSS、Blog、IM、Tag技术,IM的应用最为广泛,Wiki和Toolbar则没有被应用,有近37%的图书馆没有采用Web2.0。从图书馆理念、技术、馆员素质与用户信息素养等方面分析了原因,提出了具体的应对措施。     

电子政务环境下政府信息资源的形成及采集研究

政府信息资源的有序收集、定向传递与及时发布,是发挥电子政务系统功效的前提和基础,而政府信息资源产生于政府活动的各个环节和各级部门,使得政府信息资源呈现出多元、复杂的特性。本文首先分析了政府信息资源的形成主体,阐述政府信息资源形成的基本规律,并预测信息网络环境下政府信息资源采集的发展趋势。     

美国2007年最佳免费参考网站评介

论文评介了美国图书馆协会下属机构机器辅助参考部(MARS)评选出的美国2007年最佳免费参考网站,并简述了历年的评介.     

The impact of explanatory factors on a bidimensional model of transparency in Spanish local government

The aim of this paper is to analyse the transparency provided by local public managers and to determine whether this disclosure is limited to the minimum quantity permissible (in accordance with Agency Theory) or whether a maximum amount of information is supplied (following Legitimacy Theory). To do so, we present a Bidimensional Transparency Index (BTI), developed as an instrument for measuring the provision of information (i.e. e-disclosure), which contains two components, breadth and depth, to reflect the pattern of behaviour observed. The results obtained show that on average local managers disclose information corresponding to 60% of the indicators considered, but that only 52% of these indicators of transparency present a moderate or considerable depth of content. These findings reflect a pattern of limited information disclosure, with incomplete information. In addition, our study shows that explanatory factors have an asymmetric impact on the components of the BTI.     

A Student-Focused Usability Study of the Western Michigan University Libraries Home Page

Abstract

Three sources indicated the need for designing a usability study of the Western Michigan University Libraries' Web site: the results of the 2004 LibQUAL+ survey; the completion of the library's new strategic planning document; and suggestions by library customers and library staff. LibQUAL+ findings and customer comments suggested customers desired more independent use of the library site; better and easier electronic access to library resources, allowing customers to search for and find content on their own; and improved online help. A usability analysis was conducted with graduate and undergraduate students. The results from a task-based questionnaire, observations by investigators, and follow-up discussion sessions are presented. Investigators found usability testing alone may not be adequate to gain the qualitative data necessary for ascertaining the site's ease of use and usefulness and that a multipronged approach might be needed when evaluating a library Web site.     

U.S. state government websites demonstrate better in terms of accessibility compared to federal government and commercial websites

State government websites are a main information portal for people. The primary objective of this study is to examine 50 U.S. state government websites to evaluate the status of their accessibility in comparison with federal government and randomly selected commercial websites. The results show a significant difference among the three groups (F(2, 101) = 11.81, p < 0.001) with respect to accessibility. In particular, the state and federal government websites provide more accessible service to their users than the commercial websites (p < 0.01). The most frequent barriers to accessibility found on state government websites are also listed here for web designers and developers to enable them to improve their quality of service in the future.     

When the bureaucrat promises to safeguard your online privacy: Dissecting the contents of privacy statements on Dutch municipal websites

Various studies show that the display of a privacy statement on an organization's website can be a potent, but simple way of acquiring clients' and users' trust, which results in the completion of transactions with the organization through its website. Empirical studies that analyze the contents of privacy statements on commercial websites are profuse, while privacy statements posted on the websites of non-commercial organizations have been largely ignored by researchers. In this study, the contents of privacy statements on Dutch municipal websites are analyzed. Using the important provisions of the Wet Bescherming Persoonsgegevens (WBP) or the Dutch Personal Data Protection Act, the study also looked into the conformity of the contents of privacy statements with the existing law on privacy protection in the Netherlands. We also looked into the availability and findability of privacy statements on Dutch municipal websites. Three important findings resulted from this study: first, not all municipal websites bother to post privacy statements on their websites; second, most municipalities do not ensure that their online privacy statements are findable; and third, privacy statements on Dutch municipal websites emphasize diverging assurances and promises—with some privacy policies containing all the important provisions of the WBP, and others offering only general, and sometimes rather vague, guarantees.