A practical guide to using web metrics to measure impact and demonstrate value.
The web provides an opportunity to collect a host of different metrics, from those associated with social media accounts and websites to more traditional research outputs. This book is a clear guide for library and information professionals as to what web metrics are available and how to assess and use them to make informed decisions and demonstrate value. As individuals and organizations increasingly use the web in addition to traditional publishing avenues and formats, this book provides the tools to unlock web metrics and evaluate the impact of this content.
Key topics covered include:
- Introduction to web metrics
- Bibliometrics, webometrics and web metrics
- Data collection tools
- Evaluating impact on the web
- Evaluating social media impact
- Investigating relationships between actors
- Exploring traditional publications in a new environment
- Web metrics and the web of data
- The future of web metrics and the library and information professional.
Readership: This book will provide a practical introduction to web metrics for a wide range of library and information professionals, from the bibliometrician wanting to demonstrate the wider impact of a researcher’s work than can be demonstrated through traditional citations databases, to the reference librarian wanting to measure how successfully they are engaging with their users on Twitter. It will be a valuable tool for anyone who wants to not only understand the impact of content, but demonstrate this impact to others within the organization and beyond.
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
- Metrics
- Indicators
- Web metrics and Ranganathan’s laws of library science
- Web metrics for the library and information professional
- The aim of this book
- The structure of the rest of this book
2. Bibliometrics, webometrics and web metrics
- Introduction
- Web metrics
- Information science metrics
- Web analytics
- Relational and evaluative metrics
- Evaluative web metrics
- Relational web metrics
- Validating the results
- Conclusion
3. Data collection tools
- Introduction
- The anatomy of a URL, web links and the structure of the web
- Search engines 1.0
- Web crawlers
- Search engines 2.0
- Post search engine 2.0: fragmentation
- Conclusion
4. Evaluating impact on the web
- Introduction
- Websites
- Blogs
- Wikis
- Internal metrics
- External metrics
- A systematic approach to content analysis
- Conclusions
5. Evaluating social media impact
- Introduction
- Aspects of social network sites
- Typology of social network sites
- Research and tools for specific sites and services
- Other social network sites
- General social media impact
- Sentiment analysis
- Conclusion
6. Investigating relationships between actors
- Introduction
- Social network analysis methods
- Sources for relational network analysis
- Conclusions
7. Exploring traditional publications in a new environment
- Introduction
- More bibliographic items
- Full text analysis
- Greater context
- Conclusion
8. Web metrics and the web of data
- Introduction
- The web of data
- Building the semantic web
- Implications of the web of data for web metrics
- Investigating the web of data today
- SPARQL
- Sindice
- LDSpider – an RDF web crawler
- Conclusions
9. The future of web metrics and the library and information professional
- How far we have come
- The future of web metrics
- The future of the library and information professional and web metrics.
About the Author :
Dr David Stuart is a Research Associate at the Centre of E-Research at King's College London, an honorary member of the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group at the University of Wolverhampton (where he was previously Web 2.0 Research Fellow), and a member of the RIN Consultative Group for Librarianship and Information Science. He has a PhD in webometrics and regularly writes about library and information science topics for professional journals and magazines.
Review :
Web Metrics for Library and Information Professionals by David Stuart (Researcher in the Centre for e-Research at King's College London) is a 192 page compendium that provides librarians with an informative and practical introduction to web metrics, bibliometrics, webometrics, and data collection tools. Web Metrics for Library and Information Professionals will enable librarians to evaluate social media impact, web impact, relationships between entities on the web; and explore traditional publications in a new cyberspace environment. Of special note is Stuart's commentary on the future of web metrics and the library professional. A seminal work of impressive scholarship, Web Metrics for Library and Information Professionals is very highly recommended for practising librarians in community, academic, corporate, and governmental library systems, as well as informational professionals charged with the responsibility for gathering, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting web metrics.
Does Web Metrics for Library and Information Professionals provide a strong foundation for LIS professionals to explore the nature and potential of web metrics as a tool for building better web-based information services? The answer is unequivocally yes, and the book is recommended.
