Facilitating community information seeking using the Internet: Findings from three public library–community network systems

Abstract

We report findings from a recent study of how public libraries are using on-line community networks to facilitate the public's information seeking and use in everyday situations. These networks have been lauded for their potential to strengthen physical communities through increasing information flow about local services and events, and through facilitating civic interaction. However, little is known about how the public uses such digital services and what barriers they encounter. This article presents findings from a 2-year study that comprised a national survey with public library staff, followed by extensive case studies in three states. At each site, data were collected using on-line surveys, field observation, in-depth interviews, and focus groups with Internet users, human service providers, and library staff. The on-line surveys and the follow-up interviews with respondents were based on sense-making theory. In our article we discuss: (1) how the public is using networked community information systems and the Internet for daily problem solving, (2) the types of barriers users encounter, and (3) the benefits for individuals and physical communities from public library-community networking initiatives and the emergence of "information communities."

Information grounds and the use of need‐based services by immigrants in Queens, New York: A context‐based, outcome evaluation approach

“…These alternative and often affective ways in which people benefit from information were documented further by such researchers as Harris and Dewdney (1994) who studied battered women, by Chatman (cf. 2000) in her series of ethnographic studies on different fringe populations, Pettigrew, Durrance, and Unruh (2002) in their investigation of how people use the Internet for situations of daily living, and by Pettigrew (2000) when she addressed information flow among nurses and the elderly at community clinics. Pettigrew, for example, found that instead of acting directly upon referrals provided by nurses to attain services, seniors said they used and thus benefited from nurses' information in simply knowing that help was available if needed, that someone was concerned for them, and that alternative ways of solving their problem could be derived from the nurses' referrals.…”

The role of information in a community of hobbyist collectors

“…Research on the information-seeking behavior of low-income people (Chatman, 1991;Spink & Cole, 2001) and research in the vein of Dervin's sensemaking approach (Dervin, 1992) have done much to expand the contexts in which studies are undertaken. Other promising arenas for expansion include studies of the role of community information systems in helping individuals and building communities (Pettigrew, Durrance, & Unruh, 2002) and the role of the Internet in everyday life information seeking (Rieh). A recent article by Kari and Hartel (2007) calls for more studies of information behavior in leisure activities.…”

Lend me sugar, I am your neighbor!

“…In the 1970s, the first community network made computer terminals available in different places within a city so that community members could share or find local data in an electronic bulletin board [11]. This attempt was later followed by discussion forums [28], question and answers sites [2], local email lists or listservs [9,15] and websites that provided an integrated view of local information [9,27]. Regardless of the specific technology, community networks often obtained their content from residents of the the local communities [2,11,9,17,25,27].…”