Volume 69, Issue 1 -

This article employs a comparative historical perspective to narrow the gap in the existing knowledge of the origins of the trans-Atlantic information explosion phenomenon that dates back to the early decades of the twentieth century. The author examines the root cause of the unprecedented growth of the overall amount of documents through the lens of the rapid expansion of scientific and technical advances across the world and subsequent spread of modern technologies, particularly those applied to scientific and technical information (STI). The study’s focus is on two superpowers of the era: the thriving Soviet military-industrial complex that went hand in hand with the rise of the STI management system in the mid-twentieth century United States. By exploring the practices of a range of U.S. and Soviet information agencies, this research draws parallels with the current information overload and informs our judgment about the challenges and possibilities in scientific and scholarly research brought about by today’s global information age.

This study discovers the level of relationship between democracy and access to online information. It defines democracy using freedom ratings from Freedom House, as well as economic factors such as Gross Domestic Product and Foreign Direct Investment. The model also included a data set from Geddes, Wright and Frantz (2012), who used a finer grained scale for autocratic countries. It then explores the relationship between democracy and the level of access to online information using an ordinary least squares regression model. The level of access to online information was defined as the number of the internet users per capita within a country. The strength of the relationship indicated that this definition explained ~57 % of the interaction between these variables. In addition, the civil liberties ranking of a country was determined to have a statistically significant relationship to the number of internet users while the political rights of a country did not have a statistically significant relationship to the number of internet users. By determining this level of relationship, policymakers can then make a more informed decision while deciding on methods to bridge the digital divide. In determining which factors can be adjusted by outside stakeholders, such as access to technology, and those factors which cannot, such as levels of democracy, policymakers can determine methods to increase their impact in narrowing the digital divide.

Despite the increasing focus on the protection and promotion of the cultures of ethnic minority groups in China, the multicultural services in China’s public libraries have not yet been strengthened. This paper reports on a research study that aimed to develop a framework of library multicultural services to serve as a conceptual basis for the development of these types of services in China’s public libraries and in particular for those libraries located in China’s ethnic minority regions. Yanbian Library, the regional central library of China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, was selected as a case study, with 10 library professionals approached and interviewed using a semi-structured interview script. All interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The analysis pointed to 21 multicultural services in five main themes: multicultural user services, multilingual collection development, development of multicultural service teams, marketing of multicultural services and management of multicultural services. Although this study is situated in China, the research findings are of potential interest to library and information professionals, educators and researchers worldwide.

We examined the status of information communication technology (ICT) use among the older population in China and investigated their use of ICT in health communication and the factors that impacted their ICT adoption. A total of 215 people who were 45 or older participated in the study. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data on the participants’ social demographic characteristics, health condition, ICT use and ICT-based health communication activities. The data were analyzed using Chi-square test, one-way ANOVA, univariate logistic regression and multiple logistic regression. The results showed that 38.1 % of the participants reported being in a good health while 14.9 % were living with no chronic disease. The utilization of ICT was low, especially for computer and digital monitor devices. Only 4.7 % of the participants reported seeking health information online via computer and 7.4 % seeking health information using their cellphone, while 32 % and 14.9 % of the participants contacted healthcare providers or other patients via cellphone. Findings suggest a digital divide exists between the older population and other age groups in China. The older population need to increase the use of digital monitor devices and other ICT to facilitate their self-management process for healthcare purposes. eHealth literacy should be promoted among the older population to increase the adoption and use of ICT in health communication. Future intervention program developers and service providers should tailor their products and services to benefit the older population, especially those with low incomes, limited education and little experience of using ICT.

Book stack illuminance was recorded by a luminometer from September 2016 through September 2017 based on tracking-observation in two libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana and Champaign in the US and the Jiangsu University Library in China. Independent-samples T test and one-way analysis of variance were used for records data analysis. Further, an experiment was designed to measure the effects of book stack lighting environment on readers’ book-searching behaviors. Independent-samples T test was used for experiment data analysis. It was found that the seasonal illuminance of book stacks changed irregularly, which meant that two hypotheses (1 and 2) central to this study were not fully supported, and the day-night illumination differences on the stacks was significant in UIUC libraries for three seasons, and completely significant in JSU Library. In the course of behavior experiments, stack lighting had no significant effect on American participants’ searching performance, while the results in the library of China were diametrically opposite. Therefore, the lighting system in book stacks should be optimized through choosing the appropriate light sources, adjusting the approaches to book stack lighting and, even more, considering readers’ expectation and perception during library lighting designing, so as to increase their efficiency in book-searching.

LIS research on youth incarceration frequently highlights literacy and education as means by which youth may escape or evade systems of incarceration These adult-structured positions often fail to take into account the perspectives and experiences of youth who are actively experiencing incarceration. Through an analysis of youth contributions to The Beat Within , this research includes the perspectives of youth who are incarcerated in order to build an understanding of how literacy, representational materials and education factor into how they navigate the systems of surveillance, policing and incarceration that shape their lives.