Visitors and Residents: What motivates engagement with the digital information environment?

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Visitors and Residents What motivates
engagement with the digital information
environment?

• Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway
• OCLC Research
• David White
• University of Oxford
• Dr. Donna Lanclos
• University of North Carolina, Charlotte

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Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants
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Old people just dont get this stuff
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Research Addressing Digital Learners

• Need for a longitudinal study to identify how
  individuals engage in both the virtual and
  physical worlds to get information for different
  situations (Connaway Dickey 2010, p.56).
• The information literacy of young people, has
  not improved with the widening access to
  technology in fact, their apparent facility with
  computers disguises some worrying problems
  (Centre for Information Behaviour and the
  Evaluation of Research 2008).
• Academic staff perceive students as being more
  digitally capable than is really the case
  (Beetham, McGill, and Littlejohn 2009).

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Mode Significant Association between age and
use?
a. Institutional e-mail account No
association b. Personal e-mail account No
association c. Instant messaging No
association d. Text message (via phone) No
association e. Facebook/MySpace No
association f. Talking via phone No
association g. Talking in person No
association h. WebCT Association
Mark Bullen http//digitallearners.wordpress.com/
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http//is.gd/VqXHkT
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Visitors and Residents Study
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our generation isnt technology orientated. I
think its always a stereotype. (Participant
UKS4)
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• I think that lots of like companies and people
  away from my generation think that we rely and
  were obsessed with gadgets and gizmos and
  everybody has to buy the newest iPhone and iPad
  and newest everything. At the end of the day, as
  a student, are you really know is that is what
  the internet is for. How you get to it it
  doesnt matter if you dont own a computer and
  you have to come to the library to use it.
  Umlike its available to you and you dont care
  like how you get it.
• (WorldCat.org Focus Group Interview UKU4th year
  Participant)

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Facebook is for administration social
communication
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Dont mention Wikipedia!
EnglishThe Free Encyclopedia3 642 000 articles
??????????750 000 ??
DeutschDie freie Enzyklopädie1 233 000 Artikel
EspañolLa enciclopedia libre761 000 artículos
FrançaisLencyclopédie libre1 106 000 articles
???????????????? ????????????714 000 ??????
PortuguêsA enciclopédia livre685 000 artigos
ItalianoLenciclopedia libera803 000 voci
PolskiWolna encyklopedia802 000 hasel
NederlandsDe vrije encyclopedie688 000 artikele
n
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Common Research Findings

• Information literacy skills lacking
• Information literacy not kept pace with digital
  literacy
• Researchers self-taught confident

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Why Visitors and Residents Project?

• If we build it, they will come. NOT
• Shifting changes in engagement with information
  environment
• Effect of larger cultural changes influenced by
  Web?
• New attitudes towards education?
• Gap in user behaviour studies need for
  longitudinal studies
• Understanding of motivations for using and
  expectations of technologies and spaces in
  information environment
• Inform projects service design to improve
  engagement uptake

http//www.oclc.org/research/activities/vandr/
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Selected Readings

• Beetham, Helen, Lou McGill, and Allison
  Littlejohn. Thriving in the 21st Century
  Learning Literacies for the Digital Age (LLiDA
  Project). Glasgow The Caledonian Academy,
  Glasgow Caledonian University, 2009.
  http//www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/llida/LLiDAReportJun
  e2009.pdf.
• Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, and Timothy J. Dickey.
  The Digital Information Seeker Report of the
  Findings from Selected OCLC, RIN, and JISC User
  Behaviour Projects. 2010. http//www.jisc.ac.uk/me
  dia/documents/publications/reports/2010/digitalinf
  ormationseekerreport.pdf.
• Nicholas, David. Rowlands, Ian. Huntingdon, Paul.
  Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the
  Future A CIBER Briefing Paper. London CIBER,
  2008. http//www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/progra
  mmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf.
• Warwick, Claire. Galina, Isabel. Terras, Melissa.
  Huntington, Paul. Pappa, Nikoleta. LAIRAH
  research on good practice in the construction of
  digital humanities projects. University College
  London. 2008. http//discovery.ucl.ac.uk/13810/

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• The researchers would like to thank Dr. Alison
  LeCornu for her assistance in keeping the team
  organized, scheduling and conducting interviews,
  analyzing the data, and disseminating the
  results.

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Thanks
Questions Comments
connawal_at_oclc.org david.white_at_conted.ox.ac.uk _at_da
veowhite