Introducing The Source
The Digital Information Seeker: Report of findings from selected OCLC, RIN and JISC user behaviour projects (Note: PDF)From the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) website
There are numerous user studies published in the literature and available on the web. In the interest of analysing and synthesising several user behaviour studies conducted in the US and the UK, twelve studies were identified. These twelve selected studies were commissioned and/or supported by non- profit organisations and government agencies; therefore, they have little dependence upon the outcomes of the studies. The studies were reviewed by two researchers who analysed the findings, compared their analyses, and identified the overlapping and contradictory findings. This report is not intended to be the definitive work on user behaviour studies, but rather to provide a synthesised document to make it easier for information professionals to better understand the information-seeking behaviours of the libraries’ intended users and to review the issues associated with the development of information services and systems that will best meet these users’ needs.
A description of the key findings reported in each of the selected studies is included in this document. After this, the common findings of the studies as well as contradictory findings are discussed. The report ends with the identification of issues that librarians must address in order to meet the needs of diverse user groups. Some suggestions for further research and development are included.
The Impact of the internet on institutions in the future (Note: PDF)
From the Pew Internet & American Life Project website
By an overwhelming margin, technology experts and stakeholders participating in a survey fielded by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center believe that innovative forms of online cooperation could result in more efficient and responsive for-profit firms, non-profit organizations, and government agencies by the year 2020.
While their overall assessment anticipates that humans’ use of the internet will prompt institutional change, many elaborated with written explanations that expressed significant concerns over organisation’s resistance to change. They cited fears that bureaucracies of all stripes – especially government agencies – can resist outside encouragement to evolve. Some wrote that the level of change will affect different kinds of institutions at different times. The consensus among them was that businesses will transform themselves much more quickly than public and non-profit agencies.
State Of America’s Libraries Report 2010 (Note: PDF)
From the American Library Association website
The library situation in America described using the title of a book that doesn’t turn out very well. A couple of paragraphs into the summary, we learn that the “perfect storm” for libraries, especially public libraries, is forming. Research from the ALA and the University of Maryland shows that the storm consists of “growing community demand for library services and shrinking resources to meet that demand. While library use soars, a majority of states are reporting cuts in funding to public libraries and to the state library agencies that support them. Not only are these cuts issues for the public, library admin, librarians, and staff but also for the companies who supply libraries with a variety of tools and services. What does the “perfect storm” mean to their bottom lines and what are they doing or going to do about it?
Reading in an age of change
From the Overland website
Margaret Simons, award-winning freelance journalist, author of books, essays and articles, and a part-time lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology, discusses text in the electronic world.
Reading in a time of change (Note: Video)
From the Australian Policy Online website
The way we read is changing more profoundly now than at any time since the invention of movable type. E-books, electronic ink, digital readers; the book is reinventing itself at a dizzying rate. But what does the future hold for readers, for publishers and for writers?
In this inaugural Meanland event (a collaboration between literary journals Meanjin and Overland), Marieke Hardy, Sherman Young, (and in Part 2) Margaret Simons and Peter Craven discuss the impact of new technology, economic change and shifting notions of intellectual property on reading and writing in Australia. Hosted by Meanjin editor, Sophie Cunningham.
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