Making Digital Libraries Go: Comparing Use Across Genres

A new federal initiative called Information Technology for the Twenty-First Century (IT2) recognizes the need to bridge research across domains in order to bring computing benefits to society at large. One implication for digital library (DL) research is that we should start looking at projects that span the spectrum from basic computer science to the implementation f working systems and consider links among findings on information system use from a variety of arenas in life. In this paper, I integrate findings from my research on people's encounters with DLs in two different arenas: academia nd low-income neighborhoods. The point is to see how concepts and conclusions related to use do, in fact, cross these arenas. The paper also aims to help bring results from studies of local community information practices into the realm of DLs, since community networking represents one particular genre and audience that has not yet received a great deal of attention from those engaged in DL research. Beginning with a discussion of DL use as an "assemblage " of infrastructure, norms, knowledge, and practice, the paper explores a number of insights gleaned from user studies associated with two separate research projects: 1) the recently completed University of Illinois Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI) project; and 2) the Community Networking Initiative (CNI) currently in progress under the auspices of the University of Illinois, the Urban League of Champaign County and Prairienet, the community network serving East Central Illinois. Insights about DL use discussed in this paper include: the way in which trivial barriers are magnified until they effectively cut off use on a large scale; the difficulties faced by "outsiders " whose information worlds are impoverished; the primacy of comfort and relevant content in encouraging use; and the importance of informal social networks for providing help related to system use