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Statement of quality
Introduction
AERADE serves those working, studying and researching in aerospace and
defence sectors, including higher education, industry and commerce, government,
government agencies and not-for-profit organisations.
The objectives for the collection are:
- to point to quality Internet information sources that can support pure and
applied research, teaching and industrial needs
- to be a comprehensive collection
Scope policy
This outlines the collection parameters in terms of language,
subject, geographical coverage, and access.
- Subject matter
- The subjects covered are listed within the AERADE directory
structure.
- Resources which contain information on potentially illegal areas such as
bomb-making guides will be excluded.
- Acceptable sources
- Information from academic, government, commercial, trade and
industry, non-profit and private sources are all acceptable provided that they
fall under the acceptable subject matter criteria.
- Resources should be available on the Internet. Information intended for use only
by an individual or local group is unacceptable.
- Geographical coverage
- AERADE will have an international remit. With regard to
defence this will include the European Union, NATO and the United Nations.
- Language
- Resources in all European languages will be accepted.
- Technology
- Resources using advanced WWW technology (Java applications,
frames, etc.) will be considered but users will be given appropriate warning in
the catalogue record that the resource is dependent on suitable technology.
- Cost
- Commercial or fee based resources will be considered but
appropriate information on cost will be provided to the user in the catalogue
record.
- Registration
- Resources which require the user to register before use will
be considered but appropriate information on registration will be provided to
the user in the catalogue record.
- Metadata
- There must be sufficient information within the resource to
create a catalogue record. The minimum amount of information would be a title
and URL. Contact details of the person or organisation responsible for the
resource will be desirable.
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Selection principles
The information content is a primary consideration when
evaluating Internet resources for AERADE. Information should be valid, accurate
and current, and should come from a valid and authoritative source.
AERADE aims to point to primary information. Additionally, lists of links will
be included where these are deemed to cover suitably specialist material and
there is substantial value added information by means of annotations, etc. The
information will not always be comprehensive. Whilst full text documents will be
actively searched for, articles with abstracts only, and organisational sites
will also be included.
If a resource falls within the scope of the AERADE it will be evaluated in terms
of content, structure and maintenance, and the following aspects will be
considered.
| Content |
Structure |
Maintenance |
|
Validity
Authority and reputation of source
Substantiveness
Accuracy
Comprehensiveness
Uniqueness
Composition and organisation |
Ease of navigation
Provision of user support
Use of recognised standards
Aesthetics |
Information integrity
Site integrity
System integrity |
Content
- Validity
- Does the resource have a scope statement?
Are references to full text documents given?
Do full text documents have a bibliography?
Are the sources of the information to textual document stated?
Does the URL support the claim of authorship?
Contact details: are addresses and phone numbers given that support claims of
authorship, sponsorship etc.?
Is the content of the resource verifiable - can the information be
cross-checked?
-
Authority and reputation of the source
- Is the publisher known to cataloguer and reputable?
Is the publisher a recognised authority?
-
Substantiveness
- Does the resource contain more than contact details?
Is the information more than merely advertising?
Is there value added information?
If the resource consists of a collection of links is there substantial
annotation or value-added information? (e.g. an annotated bibliography)
-
Accuracy
- Are the grammar and spelling accurate?
Are there a large number of typographical errors?
-
Comprehensiveness
- Is the title informative?
Is there an opening mission statement of the purpose of the resource?
Does the index or contents page accurately reflect the coverage?
-
Uniqueness
- Is it primary material?
Is there any original work available at the site?
-
Composition and organisation
- Is there a good structure?
Is the information within a resource arranged logically and consistently?
Is the information broken down into logical parts?
Is the resource well laid out?
Is the resource organised by the needs of the user?
Is the information broken down into digestible parts?
Is the content clearly described?
Are the headings clear and descriptive?
Is there evidence of internal standardisation (e.g. use of a 'style sheet'?)
Structure
- Ease of navigation
- Are there hidden layers that are difficult to discover?
Does it take more than three 'clicks' (three links) to get to something
interesting?
Do all the links serve an easily identified purpose?
Are all the links clearly labelled?
Are there good back and forward links between pages?
Can a particular page be located from any other page?
Do images support ease of navigation?
Are graphics/sounds/videos clearly labelled and identified?
Is there an A-Z index?
Does the system have an effective search facility?
Is keyword searching possible?
How effectively can information be retrieved from the resource?
-
Provision of user support
- Do essential instructions appear before links and interactive portions?
Is there online help?
Is contextual help available?
Is there online documentation?
Is there an email or interactive 'Help Desk'?
-
Use of recognised standards
- Is metadata provided?
-
Aesthetics: appearance of the site
- Does the resource follow good design principles?
Does it look and feel friendly?
Is the balance of text, images, links, headers, font sizes and white space good?
Are the size, colour and animation of the images appropriate?
Maintenance
AERADE aims to point to resources that are physically
accessible and stable, and that are adequately maintained. The information, the
interface and the system supporting the resource should all be reliable.
- Information integrity
- Is the date given stating when the Web item was created?
Do the stated dates correspond to the information in the resource?
How current is the material included in each update?
Are time-sensitive resources available in near real-time? (particularly relevant
to news sites)
Where relevant to content of the site, as the data been updated recently? Is
there a statement about the frequency of update?
-
Site integrity (work of the web site manager)
- Are the downtimes announced?
-
System integrity (work of the Systems Administrator)
- Is it usually possible to reach the site or is it overloaded?
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Resource types and categories in
AERADE
AERADE only points to resources available via the Internet.
Many different types of resource are acceptable, providing they fall within the
scope and meet with the selection criteria. Types of resources in the collection
will include: Electronic journals, electronic textbooks, mailing lists and
archives, online reports and papers, databases, directories, software, homepages
of professional societies and associations, research centres, government,
organisations, companies, recruitment agencies, university departments, mailing
lists/newsgroups, FAQs tutorials, and subject and user guides.
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Deselection principles
Records can be removed from AERADE by members of the AERADE
team. An automated link checker will be run every month to identify broken links
or changed addresses.
AERADE team members will deselect a source:
- If the resource is no longer available.
- If the currency or reliability of the resource has lost its value.
AERADE Team members will edit a record:
- If the information content of the resource has changed so that the
resource description and keywords need updating.
- If any of the factual details of the resource have changed (e.g. new URL,
new admin email).
- To correct any errors made in the original record.
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Filling gaps in the collection
The AERADE team will seek to exclude sites that may
compromise the overall quality of the gateway, and in instances where a site is
deemed to be a borderline case, it will be subjected to a process of collective
(internal) review and decision.
Replacements for deselected resources will be sought if the content of the
resource was useful but the resource has been removed or has proved unstable.
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This policy uses the SOSIG Scope Policy, Selection
Criteria and Collection Management Policy as a framework, and the consent of
Debra Hiom is gratefully acknowledged.
AERADE provides links to Internet sites and information maintained by
third parties. Neither AERADE nor Cranfield University is responsible for, in
any respect, any information, content, products or services on these third-party
sites. Although all our resources are selected by subject experts and
descriptions are checked regularly for currency, the AERADE team cannot
guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any Internet resource listed on its
web site for the reasons stated above. Furthermore, we disclaim all
responsibility for the consequences of any actions carried out as a result of
using information from these resources.
To help us maintain our high quality, please alert the AERADE team if you
suspect the information contained within a resource description is inaccurate or
significantly out of date.
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