摘要：The Finnish National Virtual Library (www.jyu.fi/library/virtuaalikirjasto) is a qualitycontrolled subject gateway library developed by Finnish university libraries. The service helps scholars in mapping the Internet resources available in their subject fields. The study extends the user evaluation conducted in the Virtual Library Project by examining scholars’ use and opinions of the service. The study is based on qualitative theme interviews of 44 researchers in four different disciplines (ecological environmental science, nursing science, literature/cultural studies and history). Subject gateway libraries are most useful for beginning Internet users and beginning scholars. Humanist scholars are more likely to use subject gateway libraries than scientists who seek and find the literature they need from “official” bibliographic databases. The partipants, however, preferred digital services built by other scholars over those whose originators are not researchers. The reasons for this are explicated and the findings are used as a basis for a more general discussion on the problems of planning and developing digital libraries as extensions of academic libraries’ traditional functions and services.
