Effect of perceived ease of use on librarians' e-skills: Basis for library technology acceptance intention

Despite the widespread application of technology in the 21st century, making informed decisions regarding its acceptance in organisations is a function of several factors, particularly in developing countries, due to factors such as rising cost of the information technology infrastructure and low technological exposure. A model that incorporated perceived ease of use (PEOU) and e-Skills to examine librarians' intention for actual library technology acceptance was tested. The correlational research design, along with a multistage sampling procedure, was applied to select samples to reduce the sample to a manageable proportion. Professional librarians and library officers in four university libraries provided the data for the study. Results showed that e-Skill is the model's strongest determinant of technology acceptance intention among librarians. Also, PEOU will significantly moderate librarians' intention towards library technology acceptance when e-Skills are insufficient. From these outcomes, the understanding of the determinants of behavioural intention captured in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAT) is extended and refined.     

Factors affecting the continuation to use and e-WOM intention of online library resources by university students: A study in Indonesia

Online library resources can act as a trusted source to find various references for conducting research or writing research papers. With the increasing number of published papers, the use of online library resources becomes increasingly important for academics, including for university students. This study aims to investigate the factors that lead to the continued use of online library resources among university students in developing countries, especially Indonesia. We investigate the impact of resource quality, confirmation, satisfaction, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived enjoyment of users on their intention to continue using online library resources and the effect on e-WOM intention. This study will enhance the Post-Acceptance Model of Information System (IS) Continuance by adding several other constructs and tested using data from 215 university students in Indonesia who have used online library resources. The method used to analyze the data is Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results of the study indicate that satisfaction and perceived enjoyment have a significant effect on the intention to continue using online library resources. In addition, it was also found that the continuation intention to use online library resources also affects the user's intention to convey it to others (e-WOM intention). This study provides insight to online library resources service providers in making improvements and formulating strategies to increase users' intentions to continue using their online library resources.     

国内中外档案馆比较研究的局限性

中外档案馆比较研究,在我国是一种常见的研究方法.目前,国内的中外档案馆比较研究虽然取得了很多成果,但也存在较大的局限性,比较突出的表现在:外国的比较对象局限在英语国家中的发达国家,忽视非英语国家和发展中国家;案例以国家级档案馆为主,用国内地方档案馆与发达国家的国家档案馆比较.国内中外档案馆比较研究,要突破发达英语国家的国家档案馆的局限,更多地关注非英语国家和地方档案馆,尤其是发展中国家的档案馆.     

E-Government in developing countries: Experiences from sub-Saharan Africa

This article addresses the different institutional and cultural contexts which must be considered when implementing E-Government in sub-Saharan Africa. Although E-Government is a global phenomenon, simply transferring ICT solutions and related organizational concepts from developed to developing countries seems inappropriate. E-Government undoubtedly has the potential to reduce administrative and development problems. However, it is obvious that compared to developed countries, additional effort is necessary when implementing E-Government in developing countries. More than in developed countries, the different initial institutional, cultural, and wider administrative contexts must be considered to avoid unintended effects. It is oversimplifying the issue to merely state that E-Government projects fail in Africa and other developing regions. Although E-Government in African countries lags far behind developed countries, this should be considered more as a state failure or lack of capacity in general. In particular, the different administrative contexts and rationalities must be taken into an account when implementing E-Government projects and strategies. Therefore, especially for African countries, a context-oriented approach seems to be a more promising route to the successful implementation of E-Government. The results of this approach may not seem ambitious from a western perspective, but could contribute to the solution of real-life and development problems in African societies.     

The Yale Law Library,On Demand: A Holistic Approach to Library Services

The Yale Law Library has developed a suite of On Demand access and collection services. This article describes each service in detail, with the intention of assisting other libraries in developing similar services and generating discussion as to the future of library services in the digital era.     

Analyzing Digital Library Initiatives: 5S Theory Perspective

This article traces the historical development of Digital Libraries (DLs), examines some DL initiatives in developed and developing countries and uses 5S Theory as a lens for analyzing the focused DLs. The analysis shows that present-day systems, in both developed and developing nations, are essentially content and user centric, with low level digitization projects in developing countries. Also, there is a lack of interoperability among the various types of DL initiatives. The article recommends investment in DL projects, digitization of print collection, as well as the development of standards that will address the problem of interoperability among the various systems.     

Challenges of an Interactive Environment in the Context of Developing Countries in sub-Saharan Africa

The paper discusses the state of the interactive environment in the context of developing countries and relates this to the library and information service (LIS) professionals' ethos on freedom of information. It highlights the role of LIS professionals in adaptive integration of the concept of “leap-frogging,” in support of the struggle for equal access to information for citizens. Drawing from the literature of developed countries, the paper then focuses on ethical issues to which LIS professionals in developing countries need to be sensitized. It encompasses freedom of information, copyright and privacy of information. It concludes by recognizing the need for the reinforcement of education on ethical issues for LIS professionals in developing countries and the role of library associations in sensitization efforts.     

Challenges of an Interactive Environment in the Context of Developing Countries in sub-Saharan Africa

The paper discusses the state of the interactive environment in the context of developing countries and relates this to the library and information service (LIS) professionals' ethos on freedom of information. It highlights the role of LIS professionals in adaptive integration of the concept of “leap-frogging,” in support of the struggle for equal access to information for citizens. Drawing from the literature of developed countries, the paper then focuses on ethical issues to which LIS professionals in developing countries need to be sensitized. It encompasses freedom of information, copyright and privacy of information. It concludes by recognizing the need for the reinforcement of education on ethical issues for LIS professionals in developing countries and the role of library associations in sensitization efforts.     

高校图书馆社会化服务的途径与策略

阐述了我国高校图书馆与发达国家高校图书馆,在社会化服务方面的差异。论述了我国高校图书馆向社会开放的必要性与存在的问题,指出了现阶段高校图书馆向社会实行有限开放的合理性,探讨了高校图书馆社会化服务的有限开放模式。     

Information needs of academic medical scientists at Chulalongkorn University

The information needs of scientists in English-speaking countries have been studied and reported in the library literature. However, few studies exist on the information-seeking patterns of scientists in developing countries, and no study has examined the information needs of medical scientists in developing Asian countries. This study investigated the information needs of academic medical scientists at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. The results indicate that medical scientists have three types of information needs: identifying up-to-date information, obtaining relevant studies and data, and developing research topics. Thai scientists' information-seeking behavior was different from that of scientists in developed countries. The study shows a high use of libraries as information providers; Thai medical scientists rely heavily on information from abroad.     

试论伊朗“Twitter革命”中社会媒体的政治传播功能

本文试图通过伊朗Twitter革命的个案研究,来观察和分析社会媒体在国家危机中发挥的政治传播功能与效用,特别是在发达国家具有先发技术优势的背景下,社会媒体与国际政治力量结合对发展中国家可能产生的消极影响。     

社区图书馆建设的思考

本文通过分析社区图书馆建设的必要性和国内社区图书馆发展的基本状况,并总结国外社区图书馆创办的先进经验,进而对我国社区图书馆今后的发展思路做了初步的探讨。     

Strategic e-government development and the role of benchmarking

Developing information systems and e-government requires a lot of strategic and financial resources that developing countries often do not have. Facing such challenges, some countries are supported by international assistance and donors. This research contributes to explain how such assistance on the development of national information and communication technology (ICT) strategies and programs is related to e-government development. This comparative study of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, (Former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia takes a Rational Neoinstitutionalist perspective to look at longitudinal changes in these developing countries. Quantitative data such as the amount of foreign aid for national ICT strategies and the e-government index are combined with qualitative information from reports and documents. The research suggests that the effect of international assistance on e-government is generally positive in less developed countries. The analysis of benchmarking and benchlearning as e-government policy-making tools is another aim of this study, providing a critical discussion of their role and that of the donor–benchmarker duality.     

��ȡ���⾭�� ��չ�ҹ�ͼ���רҵ��������

借鉴国外发展继续教育的成功经验,探讨我国图书馆专业继续教育的发展战略。     

LIS curriculum in French-speaking West Africa in the age of ICTs: The case of Benin and Senegal

LIS training programme in Africa date from early independence period. In French-speaking West African area, few countries have an LIS school. The existing schools have been created in partnership with either an international organization or a northern country. The curriculum delivered is not always updated as in developed countries. The main objective of this article is to measure the gap between LIS curriculum as actually delivered in developed and developing countries in the age of the information and communication technologies (ICTs). A couple of schools were chosen—English and French-speaking area—from Northern America and Western Europe; their curriculum served as basis for evaluating those in West African French-speaking countries. The conclusion that can be drawn from the study is that LIS curriculum in Africa has changed less since the schools’ first creation and ICTs are not present as in Western countries. This trend brings out the problem of the curriculum pertinence and the competitiveness of the graduate students in the international employment market.     

How scholars implement trust in their reading,citing and publishing activities: Geographical differences

In an increasingly digital environment, many factors influence how academic researchers decide what to read, what to cite, where to publish their work, and how they assign trust when making these decisions. This study focuses on how this differs according to the geographical location of the researcher, specifically in terms of the country's level of development. Data were collected by a questionnaire survey of 3650 authors who had published articles in international journals. The human development index (HDI) was used to compare authors' scholarly behavior. The findings show that researchers from less developed countries such as India and China (medium HDI) compared to those in developed countries, such as the USA and UK (very high HDI) are more reliant on external factors and those criteria that are related to authority, brand and reputation, such as authors' names, affiliation, country and journal name. Even when deciding where to publish, the publisher of the journal is more important for developing countries than it is for researchers from the US and UK. Scholars from high HDI countries also differ in these aspects: a) they are less discriminatory than authors from developing countries in their citation practices; b) for them the fact that a source is peer reviewed is the most important factor when deciding where to publish; c) they are more negative towards the use of repositories and social media for publishing and more skeptical about their potential for increasing usage or reaching a wider audience.     

Quality Perceptions of Thai Consumers Toward e-Book Devices Made in Different Countries

The purpose of this research is to measure e-Book device quality levels as the effects of country of origin from six countries including Thailand. Four hundred thirty questionnaires were answered by consumers in Bangkok. The results revealed that the highest quality ranking was country of origin from the USA, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, and Thailand respectively. Also, the finding showed that e-Book devices made in developed countries and developing countries had significantly different effects on Thai consumer perceptions of quality.