The Impact of Digital Resource and Service Use

on Urban Residents in New England Public Libraries

--A Survey Report

by

Yan Quan Liu, Ph.D. and Agnes Wnuk

ABSTRACT:  Today, access to digital information is essential to patrons using public libraries, whether they have contact with computers at home, work or school or whether the public library is their only contact.  In order to evaluate and ultimately enhance public library digital resources and services, it is critical for administrators, librarians and digital information architects to recognize the impact their current digital offerings have on users. This study utilizes a survey to gauge the perceptions of patrons who use digital resources and services in six urban New England public libraries as part of ongoing research into digital information access in public libraries in the United States from the perspective of users.

KEYWORDS: Digital libraries, Public libraries, Digital Resources, Digital Services

Introduction

The public library’s mission is to equip patrons with “equal opportunity to access material recorded in all ways” and to provide that access for “continuous development of knowledge, personal skills and civic skills, and for life long learning” (Aabo, 2005). Increasingly, public libraries provide “material recorded” in ever-expanding digital formats available both on publicly accessible computers within the library building and on the World Wide Web for home use.  Digital resources cover disparate text formats from OPACs, databases, digitized periodicals, books and special collections to library portals, to a myriad of digital non-text formats such as web-casts, pod-casts and downloadable audio books, music and games. Digital services cover online instruction, tutorials, reference and homework assistance. Composition and availability of digital resources and services vary from library to library depending on the needs of the patrons,  the makeup of the community and the location of the building itself.

As more information, such as government publications, Internet subscription news media and periodicals, and other proprietary publications, is digitized and exclusively available online, public libraries become critical information access points for both populations that lack computers or that lack subscription access. If the library’s mission of providing all patrons access to information, “recorded in all ways”, is to be met and for a “digital divide” [1](NTIA, 1998) to be avoided, it is imperative that digital resources be available in public libraries for all those who need them. Are public libraries effectively providing patrons with the digital resources they need? What is the users’ perception? What is the situation in New England urban public libraries?

This is the second in a series of surveys conducted by the Communication and Library Science Department of Southern Connecticut State University which addresses and tries to answer these questions.  The first study included urban and suburban public libraries exclusively in the state of Connecticut (Liu, 2006).     

The Questions Investigated

What impact do public library digital resources and services have on the patrons that use them whether they have access elsewhere or not? To answer this question, we need to look at who is using the digital resources, how they are using them and why they are using them. The survey was designed to find answers to the following set of six research questions:

1. Who are the regular users of public library digital resources?

2. Why do these users turn to these digital resources?

3. What information do users seek using digital resources?

4. How do users benefit from information obtained through public digital services?

5. What barriers to using digital resources do users encounter?

6. What factors facilitate a user’s positive interaction with public digital resources & services?

This survey of urban New England public library patrons addresses the dual goals of usability and accessibility through an examination of the users and their usage of publicly available digital resources in their respective libraries. Data was gathered and analyzed to discern trends in user characteristics and in patterns of information sought. The results of the study are provided in this report to help library administrators, information architects and collection providers to prioritize, improve and tailor their digital services to best meet their patrons’ information needs and to ensure that these resources are accessible and user friendly.

Studies on Digital Information Access Enhancement 

The imperative that everyone, regardless of economic, social or educational status should have access to digital resources applies especially to publicly available information and services, but mere access to information, computers or the Internet is not enough.  The hardware and software must be upgraded when necessary.  Moreover, the users must have the skills to use both hardware and software and to search competently. Several studies have been done on these disparate but complementary issues.

Heurtz et al (2001) assert that access to information itself is crucial and conclude that, in this “information age” those without Internet capabilities are being left behind .  Others state that failure to provide equal access to information will lead to an even wider socio-economic gap between the upper and lower classes in America (McKissak, 1998, Ratan, 1995).

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) conducted several studies documenting the levels of access experienced by different groups in the United States (NTIA 1995, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004). Although NTIA reports changed in tone, from recording an alarming gap, in 1995, to declaring that the gap was rapidly closing, in 2002, other studies have shown that disparities persist.  Birdsall (2005) examined the percentage of the population with Internet access, or “Internet connectivity at home”, by state, using data from the 2000 U.S. Census, and found extensive geographic differences in levels of access. One could question whether those lacking access at home are using public library computers to acquire digital information.

Today, most public libraries are “wired” and offer patrons Internet access. The American Library Association’s “The State of America’s Libraries” notes that, “In the past ten years, libraries across the country have achieved a major success in connectivity; today virtually all public libraries in the United State offer public access to the Internet” (ALA, 2006).  Warschauer has argued that mere physical access to technology is not enough. Several questions remain unanswered: Are the connections fast enough to be useful? Are there enough workstations to satisfy all patron needs? Do libraries maintain and/or upgrade hardware and software to keep up with technological advances? Do patrons have enough time on the computers to finish the work they need to do?

Data published in the Public Libraries and the Internet survey, from the American Library Association and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Bertot, 2005), notes that although their results document high levels of Internet access in public libraries, there are “signs of cracks in the quality of service and the ability to sustain programs” (Bertot, 2005). These exhaustive surveys compile data from over 5000 libraries in which questions were answered by library staff regarding the existence of Internet access, services and funding at their respective libraries.  Warschauer (2003) documents attempts to “bridge the divide” of digital information access and postulates that “…the key issue is not unequal access to computers but rather the unequal ways that computers are used” (Warschauer, 2003, p.47).  Public libraries cannot provide hardware and “access” without providing the training to use them.

Warschauer concludes that a “framework that focuses on [physical] access issues alone fails to face these broader inequalities in technology use and learning”(Warschauer, 2003, p.47). Meaningful access must include both physical access (hardware) and actual usability (skills) to achieve a desired purpose (Warschauer, 2002). This disparity of access has been termed “the skills gap” (Warschauer, 2003), “the secondary level of digital divide” (Hargittai, 2002), and “digital inequality” (DiMaggio, 2001).

Do library users know how to utilize the hardware, how to navigate the digital resources and how to find the information they seek? Are libraries teaching patrons how to use computers and how to search for information? Are they helping patrons who are unable to find what they are looking for?

Missing from these studies is the user’s perspective. What is the patron’s experience in using public digital resources? What problems exist with hardware, connectivity and usability of publicly accessible digital services? Is the public library’s mission in providing information through digital resources being met from the patron’s standpoint?

Purpose of the Study

Although digital technology and services have been available in public libraries for years, scant empirical attention has been given to the question of how urban residents use the digital services, what type of information they seek and whether the retrieved information is beneficial. Qualitative, in-depth information of user behavior in the public digital library environment is rarely seen in current literature.

This study attempts to remedy this lack by identifying the patterns and characteristics of digital information and services offered in a cross-section of urban New England public libraries, by gauging how effectively public digital libraries serve their patrons’ needs, and by making recommendations on ways that public libraries might enhance services for this user population. Gauging the impact of digitized materials provided by public libraries on the community they serve is extremely important and might help administrators and librarians determine whether their digital collections and services are meeting the needs of patrons. By seeing how often and which digital resources are used may help administrators when applying to funding authorities. 

Research Methodology

The survey instrument employed in this study was refined by a pilot study conducted by Southern Connecticut State University in the spring of 2003, which was funded by the Connecticut State University Faculty Research Grant Program (Liu, 2006). In this study, libraries in New England cities with populations greater than 100,000 people were contacted by mail. An initial request letter for institutional participation was followed by email and phone queries until a response was obtained from each candidate library. Libraries that agreed to participate were then sent packets containing surveys, instruction sheets and a self-addressed, stamped return envelope. Six urban libraries participated in the study.  Their general statistics are listed in Table 1. Specific digital resource offerings vary from library to library (See Table 2). Survey distribution was not uniform at all sites, however, since each participating library distributed them according to their own staff methods. These differences led to various problems, notably skewed sampling, as discussed later.

Librarians at each of the six participating libraries distributed paper copy questionnaires to patrons whoused library digital resources during the months of April and May, 2004. One hundred and forty-six individual patron questionnaires were returned to library staff. User participation was completely voluntary, anonymous and confidential. At the Hartford Public Library in Hartford, Connecticut, for example, patrons sealed their responses in envelopes before returning them to staff to ensure confidentiality. Collected envelopes were then returned to the research team for tabulation and analysis.

The survey instrument contained two parts: the initial “Demographic Information” section, using multiple-choice questions, and the secondary “Digital Resource Technology and Usability Information” section, using a combination of open and closed-ended questions. The survey was designed both to ensure that participants were not asked for any personal information and that their responses would answer the research questions.

Survey Results and Discussion

There were 146 urban residents from six public libraries across New England who participated in this study (see Table 1). Six categories of information were drawn from the results of this study responding to the study questions: the demographic characteristics of urban residents who use the digital information in the public libraries; the reported patterns of digital resource usage; the difficulties and limitations existing in the use; the ways urban residents learned to use library digital resources and whatpublic libraries do to enhance their digital services.

 1. What are the characteristics of urban residents using public library digital resources?

Of the 146 urban residents, females made up 60% of the total (see Figure 1). The white and non-white respondents were nearly evenly split. The largest non Caucasian group were African Americans, with Hispanic Americans the next largest group. Asians and Native Americans were in the single digits. Several people chose more than one designation while 1 percent selected “other”. However, 9 percent did not answer at all, indicating some concerns among the respondents in contemplating this question(see Figure 2).

In terms of age, there were many more older adults. A majority of respondents (64 percent) were between age thirty and fifty.  Interestingly, the same was found in terms of education levels. The majority was college educated, with 62 percent recorded having “some college” or more education.

Half of the respondents reported being employed while over a third reported being unemployed. In fact, one reason given for using the library digital resources was for seeking employment. Among the rest, 12 percent were either students or retirees. Only 2 percent did not answer (see Figure 3).

In terms of finances, 58 percent described themselves as earning below the national median or even at poverty levels, as designated by the 2004 Census. Only 9 percent, of those surveyed that responded, were at or above the median. Unfortunately, a large number (23 percent) chose not to answer this question (see Figure 4). Again, residents may have been uncomfortable providing this information.                                     

A large number of respondents use the public library digital resources with surprising frequency.  About 63 percent use the resources once to several times a week. The next largest group (25 percent) consists of those that use the library digital resources once to several times a month.  Those who use the public services less than once a month or not at all made up the smallest group at 12 percent (see Figure 5). The 4 percent of respondents that answered that they do not use the digital resources at all may be negligible because not all library patrons responded to this survey. Had more patrons, not only those who were in the computer area, taken part in the survey, this number might be higher. This survey, however, does not encompass prospective users, only current ones. 

2. Why do these residents turn to these digital resources?

Half of the urban residents claimed that a major reason for using the digital services was to use the Internet as a connection to other people and the world in general. About 13 percent said that the networked computer services in public libraries were their only access to the Internet, while the majority (43 percent) had access elsewhere. Other reasons for the frequent use were “speed”, “convenience” and “easy access”. Over 40 percent said that the public library provided digital resources that they were unable to find elsewhere. Moreover, 69 percent of respondents noted that they could find everything that they were looking for. One person went so far as to say, “I can’t think of anything [I could not find]. With the Internet available, how can there be unavailable information?” Never-the-less, twenty respondents noted specific subjects for which they had trouble locating information. These included very broad and isolated topics from “genealogies” to “antique silver markings”, with no discernable trends detected.

When asked how they had learned to use the digital resources, nearly half answered that they were self taught. The library contributed to the next largest group. About a quarter of the respondents cited library staff as helping them learn while another ten percent cited the library itself as a source. The other 20 percent had been taught by someone else, such as family or friends and or at school. Again, it should be noted that several of the residents chose multiple answers (see Figure 6).

Comfort level of using library digital resources was another factor gauged by the study. The majority of respondents answered that they felt “extremely” comfortable using digital resources. Almost a third noted that they were “somewhat” comfortable. Interestingly, 3 percent did not feel comfortable at all and another 3 percent answered that they were not sure how they felt about it. A larger group, 5 percent, did not respond (see Figure 7).

3. What Information Do Residents Seek When Using Digital Resources?

Three basic kinds of information sought by the surveyed residents, about 30 percent of the total, were news, employment or education related. General information, provided by the respondents under the question “other”, included a wide variety of topics such as medicine, banking, law, investments, cooking, and dog training. Current information topics included local news, movie reviews, stock market quotations and sports. Communication-related information involved working with maps, finding directions to different places, locating friends, finding business addresses and using email. The responses to the question of type of information sought included “news” and “government forms and contact information” which we recorded under the survey’s democratic participation question group.  

4. How Do Residents Benefit From Information Obtained Through Public Digital Services? 

“Connectedness”, “self-improvement” and “democratic participation” were three major groupings for the type of benefits these urban residents received from information obtained through public digital resources and services. This information was derived from the answers to the question “what they would miss most about digital library access if it were no longer available.” Taken together, the answers given under this section illustrate the important connection to the Internet, to the world, to information and to other people publicly accessible digital resources that libraries provide to their patrons. Respondents detailed benefits such as keeping in touch with family and friends and feeling connected to the world in general and to the people in it. Blanket answers included “Everything”, and “The free Internet”. There were more concrete answers such as “My source of information. Ties me to the world”. Under the topic of self improvement patrons listed employment searches and education as specific benefits derived from the availability of digital resources. One answer to the question noted that it was “A big part of my education. I won’t be able to get the right information I need [without Internet access]”. Another response mentioned “The ability to have Internet access to apply to grad school online”.

5. What Barriers to using Digital Resources and Services do Residents Encounter?

Two of the four top rated factors that matter most to urban residents in terms of computer access were connected to time restraints: both the waiting to use and the duration of use of networked computer stations. Length of waiting time to use the computer and length of computer usage time were the most important (see Table 3). The residents asked for more computers in general, more computers with Internet access specifically, longer computer usage time allotments, longer hours of library operation, and access to computers without any personal identification required (such as a library card).

Firewalls or content filters that prohibited some searches were another common frustration among the residents. Comments included: “CyberPatrol can be oversensitive” and “Fire wall hinders a lot of my searches”. Some residents felt strongly that filters had no place in an adult section. One person put it this way: “Doing away with that annoying Cyber-lock, not all of us are under the age of 12”.

The OPAC was used by residents as a path to find related library digital materials. Some patrons were looking for the OPAC to be specific to the library’s holdings, without mentioning other library’s holdings. They seemed to think that it was too complicated. 

Lack of or limited librarian assistance was mentioned as a detraction. The residents noted that the librarians were stretched too thinly and doing too many things with too limited time for each patron. There was no specific question concerning librarians but the respondents mentioned librarian assistance in answers to open ended questions.

6. What Factors Facilitate Patrons’ Positive Interaction With Public Digital Resources & Services?

 Reliability of connections was ranked as the most important factor, followed closely by speed of connection (see Table 3). Length of waiting time and length of computer usage were the next most important factors. Help from a librarian and organization of resources tied for fifth place among the best facilitators. In fact, surveyed residents had high praise for the library staff, their knowledge and assistance, stating that they are: “top notch”, “great” and “very friendly and helpful”. Responses mentioning the high regard with which patrons view library staff were scattered throughout the questionnaire, even though no direct question regarding staff was present.

One question asked what recommendations patrons would give others in regards to using their library’s digital resources. There were five types of answers. The most common recommendation was to “ask a librarian” for assistance; The second most common recommendation was to “Try Yahoo”, “Google” or some other search engine; The third most common response advised “patience” or to “keep trying”; Fourth, several respondents offered advice on search strategies, with entries such as “be very specific” and “use Boolean search terms”; Last, two respondents recommended “taking classes”.

Responses to other unrelated open ended questions also elicited advice on how the library itself could make their digital resources easier to use. The most common suggestion recommended that libraries provide instructional materials for digital resource use in the form of “tip sheets”, “booklets,” and “three steps or less instruction on how to get into system”.

Conclusion and Suggestions

High quality, fast, reliable access to digital information and services is valuable and important to urban populations, whether or not they have other Internet access. The average New England urban public library seems to be meeting its mission of providing a necessary service to those that may or may not have access to digital information at home or at work in urban areas The digital resources, accessed through the networked library computers, equip patrons with the resources necessary today to improve their lives and provide a “safety net” for citizens in danger of falling into a digital divide.

The offer of free access to networked computers in public libraries is appreciated by urban residents. The publicly accessible digital information was the sole place for about 13% of the respondents, plus another 43% who used the public library facilities as an additional source. Reasons for use were convenience, speed and ease of access. Quality, fast, reliable access to digital information is valuable and important to urban populations, whether or not they have access elsewhere.

However, the hope among respondents to the survey to increase accessibility of the digital services in public libraries indicates strongly that current levels of access are inadequate and corresponds to the finding of Bertot et al., where “85% of libraries report not being able to meet demand for computers consistently” (Bertot, 2005 p.3) Although remedies may be difficult due to constraints such as funding and space, more workstations and longer hours of access might be goals worth pursuing. A space within the library accessible longer hours with diminished staff, in the evening and on weekends, might be an equitable solution.

Enhancement of the accessibility also includes reliability and speed of connections which were top rated factors according to the urban residents. These require maintenance and upgrades, given that the information sought by users comes in ever-more information-rich forms, requiring broader band-width and upgraded applications. Critical sources (government, health and safety guides) increasingly offer streaming interactive and multimedia aspects. Patrons will be at a disadvantage if systems are not regularly upgraded. An interesting result of the study is the lower importance that patrons assign to wireless connections. Although the Gates Foundation survey reports “nearly 18 percent of public libraries already having Internet access, and 21% planning wireless access within the next year”(Bertot, p.3) according to the results of this study it may be wiser to spend funds on other upgrades.  

In conjunction with the ease of access, the presence of filters was another common frustration reported in the survey. This finding is consistent with data reported by Bertot et al., who found that 40 percent of libraries employ filters, “thus limiting access to a variety of Internet-based content” (Bertot, 2005 p.5). Health information, for example, is notoriously prone to filtering problems. The presence of filters in public libraries may be preventing the goal of patron access to critical information.  Bertot et al. go so far as to suggest that filtering may be putting the public library in a position where it is exacerbating the digital divide rather than closing it (Bertot, 2005).

Several limitations exist in this study. Due to limited funds, this study encompasses only the New England region and a small number of libraries, with a relatively low number of individual respondents. In future studies that survey users’ perspective, it would be beneficial to have more libraries and patrons participate for a more accurate view of the overall situation. Likewise, it is imperative that other regions of the country be studied in the same way to see whether the results differ perhaps regionally, according to different demographics. Also, the way some questions are phrased may need to be reworked to elicit a better response rate without having so many blank answers. Open-ended questions were answered with a variety of both general and detailed terms.

Unfortunately, results were skewed, in some instances, because some answers to both open and closed ended questions were left completely blank. Moreover, if funds were available, this research should be expended to patrons of urban libraries who are not regular users of the digital services and resources. More research needs to be done on blanketing those who do not use the resources at all to find out for what reasons they are not using them.

It is important for public library administrators, librarians and digital library architects to be informed aboutwhat their patrons think of the digital resources and services they provide. It is just as important to let patron voices be heard in the evaluation of public digital libraries. This report of the findings and recommendations based on the ratings and suggestions of the surveyed urban residents is presentedin the hope that administrators and decision makers in public libraries, will find them useful as they enhance the impact, efficiency, and value of digital resources and services vis-a-vis the needs of the populations they serve..

References

Aabo, S. (2005). The Role and Value of Public Libraries in the Age of Digital Technologies. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 37(4), 205-211.

American Library Association (2006). The State of America’s Libraries: Executive Summary. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/

march2006/2006_State_of_America’s_Libraries_Report.pdf.

Bertot, J., McCLure, C. & Jaeger, P. (2005). Public Libraries and the Internet 2004: Survey. Results and Findings, report prepared for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the American Library Association. Retrieved April  17, 2006, from

http://www.ii.fsu.edu/projectFiles/plinternet/2004.plinternet.study.pdf.

Birdsall, S. (2005). The Democratic Divide. First Monday, 10(4). Retrieved November

30, 2005, from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_4/birdsall/index.html.

DiMaggio, P., Hargittai, E., Celeste, C. & Shafer, S. (2001). From Equal Access to

Differentiated Use: A Literature Review and Agenda for Research on Digital Inequality,

prepared for the Russell Sage Foundation Inequality Project. Retrieved September 21, 2005, fromhttp://www.eszter.com/research/pubs/dimaggio-etal-digitalinequality.pdf.

Hargittai, E. (2002). Second-Level Digital Divide: Differences in People’s Online Skills.

First Monday, 7(4). Retrieved September 21, 2005, from http://firstmonday.org/ issues/issue7_4/hargittai/index.html.

Heuretz, L., Gordon, A., Moore, E. & Gordon, M. (2001, November). Public Libraries and the digital divide: How libraries help. Paper presented at the 2001 IAMCR/ICA

Symposium on the Digital Divide, University of Texas, Austin, TX.

Liu, Y.Q., Martin, C., Roehl, E., Li, Z. & Ward, S. (2006). Digital information access in  

urban/suburban communities: A survey report of public digital library use by the

residents in Connecticut. OCLC Systems & Services, 22(2), 132-144.
 

McKissack, F. (1998). Cyber ghetto: blacks are falling through the net. The Progressive,

62. Retrieved January 25, 1999, from http://homer.prod.oclc.org:3059/FETCH:re...

next=html/fs_fulltext.htm%22:fstxt28.htm

National Telecommunications and Information Administration. (1995). Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the “Have Nots” in Rural and Urban America, Washington, D.C. : U.S.      Department of Commerce. Retrieved January 22, 2006, from      http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fallingthru.html.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration. (1998). Falling Through

the Net: New Data on the Digital Divide, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of

Commerce. Retrieved January 22, 2006, from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntia.home/net2/falling.html.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration. (1999). Falling Through

the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of

Commerce. Retrieved January 22, 2006, from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome

/fttn99/contents.html.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (2002). A Nation Online: 

How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet, Washington, D.C.: U.S.

Department of Commerce. Retrieved January 6, 2006 fromhttp://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/html/anationonline2.htm.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration. (2004). A Nation Online:

Entering the Broadband Age, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce.

Retrieved March 5, 2006, from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/anol/  NationOnlineBroadband04.htm.

Ratan, S. (1995). A new divide between haves and haves-not? Time, 145. Retrieved January 25, 1999 from http://ericave.org/docgen.asp?tbl=tia&ID=88. 

Warschauer, M. (2002). Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide. First Monday, 7(7).

Retrieved September 10, 2005, from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_7

/warschauer/index.html