Stakeholder involvement in the development and maintenance of web sites for children

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate how public and state libraries are responding to research recommendations that the usability of a web site for children is improved by involving a wide range of stakeholders and particularly the end‐users, in its creation. Design/methodology/approach – The study employs a self‐administered, structured e‐mail questionnaire. Findings – The development of children's web pages is usually the responsibility of teams of internal stakeholders, with the librarians responsible overall for the library web site being involved most, followed by children's librarians. Other library staff, information technology staff from the parent organisation and external experts made smaller contributions. The target group of children were less involved and took informal, indirect roles, rather than the direct, formal roles recommended by research. Research limitations/implications – The sample size is small and includes only children's web pages in Australia and New Zealand. Originality/value – The paper presents a valuable analysis of stakeholder involvement in the development and maintenance of web sites for children among state and public libraries in Australia and New Zealand.