The Study of Webs Markup Language Validations of Libraries in Taiwan

Library website is the extended service of library; the correctness of library webpage is certainly related to accessibility and correctness of information ethics and also will manifest the importance of the compliance of library webpage with webpage design standard for reader service. Markup validation service is one kind among webpage design standard, and testing the correctness of library webpage can reveal the extent of the compliance of webpage with the standard in order to assist libraries to develop or maintain webpage conforming to the standard. This study utilized markup validation service provided by W3C to test the correctness of code of library homepage of 158 colleges and 24 public libraries in order to investigate the current status of the correctness of markup on webpage on the websites of domestic college and public libraries. The results showed that 0% of homepage markup of college and public libraries passed the test, and the error quantity of 1/3 of them was over 100; this indicated that the webpage designers and validation mechanism of domestic libraries need improvement. For the errors found in the webpage testing which W3C provided no suggestion for amendment, this study offered some suggested solutions by examples to provide references for producing and maintaining library webpage.