Digital Library Acceptance Model and Its Social Construction: Conceptualization and Development

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize a digital library acceptance model and its validation. Based on the extant literature and interviews with experts, a sixty-three statement questionnaire was developed and a survey was conducted to test the proposed model. The target population included library professionals and users from academic institutions in India including faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students. These sixty-three statements were categorized into seventeen dimensions on the basis of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model and two information success models. The model was tested using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The findings suggest that digital libraries can become more useful and acceptable to targeted user groups when they are developed in accordance with four major factors: systemic aspects, informational aspects, perception of the relevant social group, and user learning. This study is unique as it is the first time such a model has been developed for digital libraries with respect to social construction.     

STUDYING THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

This article proposes a methodology for studying the social history of telecommunications grounded in the interrelations and contaminations between Anglophone and Continental literature; its originality lies in the fact that it presents and discusses both traditions. Before tackling the central theme, the reasons for studying the history of telecommunications will be discussed and three different approaches will be considered. The first is the constructivist approach which, examines ‘relevant social groups’ and their decisions regarding telecommunications. The second is socio-economic and considers both path dependence theories and concepts useful in understanding the network economy: natural monopolies, economies of scale, externalities and public services. Finally, the macro-systemic approach will be considered. In our proposal these three approaches, deriving from both the Anglophone and Continental schools of thought, form a methodological basis for studying the history of telecommunications.     

Why university lecturers enhance their teaching through the use of technology: a systematic review

The purpose of this systematic review is to add to current understanding of technology‐enhanced teaching through a process of synthesis and analysis of a collection of contemporary case studies set within university contexts. The justification to review case studies comes from Pinch and Bijker’s concept of the ‘social construction of technology’ as a way to structure the relationships between technological artefacts used in teaching and those social groups that shape their use. Basil Bernstein’s sociological theory of pedagogy provided the framework for the analysis of the case studies. His concepts of ‘classification’ which examines power relations between categories, such as agencies, agents, discourses and practices, and ‘framing’ which examines the control of instruction in relation to the selection, sequence, pacing and evaluation of learning and determines the relationship between teachers and students, were used as instruments for the analysis of the systematically chosen case studies.