ITO Mashiro, OZAWA Kota
The Journal of Information Science and Technology Association, 58(7) 361-366, 2008 Peer-reviewed
We analyzed the existing condition of online pathfinders in Japan through a survey of questionnaire and a research of websites of the prefectural and government-designated city libraries and a part of the university libraries. It was found that only 40% of the researched libraries offered online pathfinders on their websites. An imbalance of the subject area was also observed. We attribute this situation to the insufficiency of human resources to create pathfinders in each library and a lack of streamlining of the libraries cooperation. We suggest specialization of the pathfinders of each library into the area the library is characterized in. Also we recommend developing a pathfinder-network in order to contribute to the access to information by people with online pathfinders.