Qualitative Evaluation of academic libraries Web Sites: Case studiy Central Library's of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Iran

The gole of the current study was to evaluate the quality of central libraries of the major universities of science ministry using by WebQEM method.
This descriptive exploratory study was performed on 10 websites belonging to the superior mother universities of science ministry of Iran. Data were obtained using WebQEM checklist.
Findings: Considering the four criteria evaluated by WebQEM websites had "highly favorable" status in the following Parameters: "reliability" (0.955), "efficiency" (0.915) and "functionality" (0.825) and a favorable status in the parameter of "usability" (0.703). 20% of the university websites had a highly favorable status and only 20% had a favorable status. Considering the average score obtained in each criteria, it seems that there are some weak points in the "usability" though this parameter is favorable overall. "reliability", "efficiency" and "functionality" have the best status respectively, though there are still some weaknesses in these criteria as well.
Originality: This study is among the first research with quantitative methods to evaluate the quality of the university library's website. This type of assessment can be more precise, more accurate, and faster, in the evaluation and improvement of academic libraries and other websites have similar websites.