Comparison between user affinity with digital libraries and virtual communities

Information Development

et al. 2016

Self Cite

Self-efficacy in getting information, which is defined as individuals’ judgments of their own capabilities to search, compare and evaluate information they need, is critical given the negative effects of information overload in the modern information society. This study focuses on digital library users with the purpose of identifying the user groups with lower levels of self-efficacy in getting information so as to provide insights for targeted user training. Specifically, this study explores the effect of individual differences on self-efficacy in getting information in terms of gender, current position, field and experience with using the digital library. The findings suggest that there are no significant differences between male and female users regarding self-efficacy in getting information. Undergraduate students as well as master or doctoral students and the users coming from the fields of arts and humanities as well as social sciences perceive lower levels of self-efficacy in getting information. The users who have longer experience with using the digital library perceive higher levels of self-efficacy in getting information. These findings and implications are discussed.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the effect of individual differences on self-efficacy in getting information

Information Development

et al. 2016

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“…All of the constructs and their corresponding measures were adapted from previous studies. Specifically, the items of information quality were adapted from Kim et al (2004) and Zhou (2012), the items of source credibility were adapted from Bhattacherjee and Sanford (2006) and Sussman and Siegel (2003) and the items measuring affinity were adapted from Aldás-Manzano et al (2009) and Yan and Zha (2014).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative analysis on digital libraries and academic search engines from the dual-route perspective

Cao

Zhang

et al. 2021

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Purpose Digital libraries and academic search engines have developed as two important online scholarly information sources with different features. The purpose of this study is to compare digital libraries and academic search engines from the perspective of the dual-route model. Design/methodology/approach Research hypotheses were developed. Potential participants were recruited to answer an online survey distributing at Chinese social media out of which 251 responses were deemed to be valid and used for data analysis. The paired samples t-test was used to compare the means. Findings Both information quality (central route) and source credibility (peripheral route) of digital libraries are significantly higher than those of academic search engines, while there is no significant difference between digital libraries and academic search engines in terms of affinity (peripheral route). Practical implications In the digital information society, the important status of digital libraries as conventional information sources should be spread by necessary measures. Academic search engines can act as complementary online information sources for seeking academic information rather than the substitute for digital libraries. Practitioners of digital libraries should value the complementary role of academic search engines and encourage users to use academic search engines while emphasizing the importance of digital libraries as conventional information sources. Originality/value According to the dual-route model, this study compares digital libraries and academic search engines in terms of information quality, source credibility and affinity, which the authors believe presents a new lens for digital libraries research and practice alike.

“…Digital libraries have gone from a curiosity to mainstream during the past three decades (Arms, 2012;Yan and Zha, 2014), and most digital libraries aim at catering for users' academic needs (Kwanya et al, 2011). Mobile libraries are the logical extension and augmentation of digital libraries in the web context (Marchionini, 2000;Marchionini and Fox, 1999).…”

Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the adoption of digital libraries in the mobile context

Information Development

Zhang

et al. 2016

Self Cite

Following the narrow definition of the mobile Internet, ‘mobile libraries’ refers to digital libraries accessed by users through mobile phones and wireless networks. In order to explore users’ adoption of mobile libraries, a research model is developed focusing on two psychological factors (flow experience and innovativeness) and two factors oriented to the mobile context (ubiquitous connection and use context). Data collected from digital library users who are also users of the mobile Internet were used to test the model. The findings show that use context not only has a direct impact on users’ intention to adopt mobile libraries, but also partially mediates the effect of flow experience and ubiquitous connection on usage intention. Meanwhile, innovativeness both significantly affects usage intention and negatively moderates the effect of use context on usage intention. Findings and implications for theory and practice are discussed.