Library information provider OCLC Research, US, and the University of Oxford are collaborating in a six-month, JISC-funded study. The study is part of a larger three-year longitudinal project, to investigate the theory of digital residents and visitors with students in the transitional educational stage between late-stage secondary and the first year of university.
Titled 'Visitors and Residents: What Motivates Engagement with the Digital Information Environment?' this collaborative international project began in January 2011 and will continue through to the middle of 2011. Project directors are: David White, Co-Manager (Development), Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning (TALL), part of the University of Oxford, and Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Senior Research Scientist at OCLC. Dr. Donna Lanclos, Library Ethnographer at the J. Murrey Atkins Library, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, will conduct data collection and analysis efforts in the US.
Digital residents spend a portion of their lives online, using the Web to develop an identity and maintain relationships. They tend to use the Web in many aspects of their lives, including as a venue for conducting their social life. In contrast, digital visitors use the Web as a tool for achieving specific goals as needs arise. They do not develop an online identity nor participate in online culture in the same way, or to the same extent, that digital residents do.
The Web page for 'Visitors and Residents: What Motivates Engagement with the Digital Information Environment?' is available at www.oclc.org/research/activities/vandr/default.htm.
Search for more Industry study reports
To access our daily STM news feed through your iPhone, iPad, or other smartphones, please visit www.myscoope.com for a mobile friendly reading experience.
