As information resources have grown beyond the physical domain of libraries and beyond the university itself, academic institutions are making extraordinary efforts to organize these resources. Responding to the need for a generic model that can be applied to how electronic information resources are deployed, accessed, and retrieved on the Internet, the present study proposes Infoscape as a theoretical model. The study focuses on a small subset of the electronic information landscape (Infoscape), specifically that comprised by 92 Library Gophers from academic and research institutions in the United States.
The purpose of the research was to explore the dimensions of the Infoscape model and answer the primary research question: What is the nature of existing links among electronic library resources as defined by three key Infoscape variables: accessibility, connectedness, and relevance? This study applies bibliometric techniques widely used in cocitation analysis studies to examine the links among these Gophers. In order to quantify the degree of accessibility, the study considers the links pointing to each Gopher (from the other Gophers in this sample). To establish a measure of connectedness, the outgoing links to other Gophers are considered. The volume of activity during a given month was used as a measure of relevance.
The study presents a successful application of the Infoscape model to this small subset of gopherspace. A three dimensional plot illustrates how the model fits the study. Other findings indicate that a few well designed links may be enough to provide connectedness; simplicity in setting up information resources is preferable to high complexity; and a high degree of similarity exists among the links in these gophers.
