Evaluating academic library portal effectiveness: A Malaysian case study

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of a specific library portal at the University of Technology MARA based on the opinions of students in the Faculty of Information Management.

The paper is survey based; 400 self‐administered questionnaires were sent out to students of Faculty of Information Management, University of Technology MARA.

In terms of information quality assessment, respondents had indicated that the library portal met their expectations. All the information quality attributes, namely completeness, comprehensiveness, accuracy, timeliness, reliability and appropriateness of format were rated highly by users. Equally important to information quality is systems quality and service quality. When asked to evaluate the systems quality aspect of the library portal, respondents have also rated highly.

The paper utilizes effective existing methods to determine portal effectiveness. It provides a study of only one portal, however, and as such the results are indicative only of the views of one group of students using the portal.

This paper offers a snapshot of a library portal and the opinions of users as regarding its effectiveness and would be of value to digital library researchers, or others interested in library portal effectiveness or design.