Program: electronic library and information systems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate library web sites in Pakistan, to analyse their content and navigational strengths and weaknesses and to give recommendations for developing better web sites and quality assessment studies.

Design/methodology/approach – Survey of web sites of 52 academic, special, public and national libraries in Pakistan based on a 77-item checklist.

Findings – Pakistani libraries have developed web sites over the past few years but these are few in number. No directory is available to locate library web sites and no scholarly literature has been written on this topic in Pakistan. No standards for content selection were considered in developing library web sites so they lack uniformity and often miss important features.

Research limitations/implications – This research includes web sites of all types of libraries in Pakistan. Web sites with at least one independent page on a parent organisation's web site are included.

Originality/value – This study is the first of its kind ever conducted in Pakistan. The findings of this paper will be helpful in improving library web sites.