Social Context and Culture:
Linking Use and Digital Libraries

Elfreda A. Chatman
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The questions guiding my discussion are: TO WHAT EXTENT ARE INFORMATION NEEDS AND USES GENERALIZABLE ACROSS USERS AND LEARNER GROUPS? And,

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFORMATION SEEKING AND LEARNING IN DIGITAL LIBRARIES?

In my attempt to answer these questions, I want to address them in light of my own research which has focused on the information needs and seeking behavior of ordinary citizens.(1) Applying both theoretical frameworks and ethnographic data, several generalizations about the everyday needs of people are possible. It might be worthwhile to trace the essential components of the theories I have employed and to share my major findings.

Diffusion Theory and the Information Needs of Comprehensive Employment and Training Act workers

Women who were enrolled in CETA and were single mothers were the respondents for my research (Chatman, 1986). Results from that inquiry indicated that diffusion theory worked best when applying such technological innovations as digital libraries. Information as an innovation was not possible without modification of the theory. A prominent finding was that time was an essential factor in the diffusion of information. The more time it took to reach a person, the less valuable it became.

Opinion Leadership Theory

I chose opinion leadership theory (Chatman, 1988) as my second conceptional framework because I was curious about people who are perceived to be information providers. Opinion leaders seemed an appropriate concept to explore because it allows for people within a social world to expose themselves to information that is not localized held by members of that world. In other words, these are members who are "like everyone else" except for one key difference, they are more cosmopolitan in their quest and use of information.

Results from that study indicated that if opinion leaders can be identified, they can play a major role in the interpretation of new information. Moreover, opinion leaders are risk-takers. Thus, would be ideal users and advocates of digital libraries to other members of their information environments.

Alientation Theory and Gratification Theory are two additional conceptual frameworks that I have employed. Briefly, alienation theory (Chatman, 1987) provides a foundation to examine why members of a social worlds will perceive that most information is irrelevant to them. Put succinctly, information is not viewed as very critical in response to their needs because the information is too foreign to their everyday reality (Chatman and Pendleton, 1995). Gratification Theory provides similar results. The difference lies, however in the focus. Whereas alienation theory concludes that information, and indeed most life-events are meaningless, gratification theory suggests that this meaningless might be due to facts inherent in one's social milieu (Chatman, 1991). In this world, things of most value are those things which centers on immediate reality.

Methods Employed to Generate Findings

Earlier I indicated that I use the ethnographic method to observe and record phenomena. This qualitative approach has not been used as widely in studies of information. I suspect because it is a time consuming method which required some extended experiences with the people one is studying. However, it is the only means I know to really get to the lived, contextual meaning of life-worlds different from our own. The promise this method holds for digital library researchers is enormous. Why? Because ethnographic inquiries allow the researcher to not only view the processes that constitute information seeking strategies, but also the motivations that lead to the search for information. Using ethnography one can gain insight into ways in which information is perceived, managed, used, and dissemination.

In addition to ethnography, participant observations, and an interview guide are routinely employed. In my opinion, there are instances in qualitative research in which the researcher wants and needs to understand more as to why certain events occur and others are avoided. Unless one is able to participate in those activities and get behind the self-protective behaviors that are part of social life, most of what is interesting, the "why" of meaningful action will be lost.(2)

Finally, an interview guide is used in order to ask questions that I was unable to discover from observations. Often these questions serve as a "reality check" to phenomena.

The Relationship Between This Discussion and Digital Libraries

I am particularly interested in the role that digital public libraries can play in the lives of people. It would appear that the opportunities are there to make use of where people view information as needed in their environment. Information that are related to life-events, are somewhat concrete in their utility value, translated in terminology that is easily understood, and provides some measure of privacy are key elements in the design of a system of information delivery. A consistent finding from my studies pertains to the idea of time. Information delivery in a timely fashion carries more value or weight than information that does not have this characteristic. Reliability is another essential element of information use. Digital libraries must be designed that will deliver what they claim to deliver. Nothing is more frustrating to a user than exposing oneself to systems only to be given inadequate or misinformation.

Common areas of information need include those things which will help people cope with not only life stresses, but with other members within their social world. It is no surprise that people seek information that will give them the most value for the least amount of cost. In my research, this notion of "cost" is often viewed as "risk". What I conclude from my inquiries is that if people perceive that they will need to expose themselves in order to share their real needs, they will want some guarantee that the information received will carry the highest degree of relevance, and, will allow for some measure of self-protection.

If we began to look at the social and cultural dimensions of information provision, and find that this is indeed the case, we will reach different conclusions about information need than is currently available to us. It seems to me that digital libraries have been too aligned with intellectual work. The ordinary citizen may not have work, or if work exists has little claim on how one defines oneself, or for that matter, defined by others.

What I hope will come from this conference is more discussion of how theory and research can tell us about the ordinary person in the digital library debate. I would also hope that we will look at what possibilities exists for us when we look at the role of digital libraries outside of the task-oriented model that seems to drive most of our discussions.

Footnotes:

The idea of ordinary citizens in information seeking research was addressed in a thoughtful, intelligent manner by Brenda Dervin's "The Everyday Information Needs of the Average Citizen," pp. 19-54.
My analysis of self-protection over a series of studies I've conducted resulted in my development of a Theory of Information Poverty. This article is currently in press for JASIS.

REFERENCES

Chatman, E. A. (1986). "Diffusion Theory: A Review and Test of a Conceptual Model in Information Diffusion." Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 37(6), pp. 377-386.

Chatman, E. A. (1988). "Opinion Leadership, Poverty, and Information Sharing." RQ, 26(3), pp. 341-353.

Darvin, B. (1976). "The Everyday Information Needs of the Average Citizen. A Taxonomy for Analysis." Kochen, M. and Donohue, J., ed. Information for the Community (Chicago: American Library Association, pp. 19-54).

Chatman, E. A. (1987). "Alienation Theory: Application of a Conceptual Framework to a Study of Information Among Janitors." RQ, 29(2), pp. 355-368.

Chatman, E. A. and V. EM Pendleton (1995). "Knowledge Gap, Information-Seeking and the Poor." Reference Librarian, pp. 135-145.

Chatman, E. A. (1991). "Life in a Small World: Applicability of Gratification Theory to Information-Seeking Behavior." Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42(6), pp. 438-449.

Chatman, E. A. "The Impoverished Life-World of Outsiders." Journal of the American Society for Information Science, pp. 1-40 (in press).