Web‐based user education in UK university libraries – results of a survey

A survey carried out during 1998 investigated the use of the World Wide Web for user education in 68 UK university libraries. Almost three‐quarters of the libraries surveyed make use of the Web for this purpose. The Web is used as a supplement to existing user education, in order to support independent, student centred learning and to reach parttime and distance learners. Just ten percent of user education is delivered solely via the Web, but libraries indicated that use will grow in the future. It was found that greater use is made of the Web for information skills training than for library induction. The authors suggest a number of reasons why more use is not being made of the Web for user education and propose future developments in this area. Web‐based instruction is unlikely to completely replace traditional methods, but it can be used to supplement and extend existing provision.