Labelling on Academic Library Websites

This paper studies labels on Danish academic library websites. Labels are one amongst several elements that can support user interaction with library websites and their related content and thus add to a reduction of the vocabulary problem. A total of 2075 labels used on the websites of 21 academic libraries with special obligations were analysed using a combination of content analysis and clustering analysis. The findings show not only large variety in the use of labels amongst the libraries but also a large concordance of labels used across library domains and purposes. A cluster analysis of the labels reveals that some libraries with similar purposes and functions also tend to be similar in their use of labels, which indicates a shared terminology within domains, sectors and purposes. The findings add to our understanding of the characteristics and variety of recent labelling across libraries in the academic library sector.