Search

Abstract: Sojourns to other countries, such as for studying abroad, are increasingly common. However, adjusting to life in a different country can be stressful and require significant effort. Sojourners need to not only maintain and expand their social networks, but they also continuously seek information about their new environment. While international students are a sizable group, their daily information behavior is not well understood. This study posits that social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, may play an important role in international students'' everyday life information seeking (ELIS). Using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and structural equation modeling (SEM), the study analyzed international students'' everyday life information needs, their usage of SNS for ELIS, and the relationships among demographics, personality traits, SNS usage, and perceived usefulness of the acquired everyday life information. Findings indicate that a majority of the respondents frequently used SNS for ELIS. Younger students, undergraduates, and extroverts were more likely to use SNS for ELIS, while no gender difference was found. Notably, among the nine user characteristics and behavior factors, SNS usage emerged as the only positive predictor of perceived usefulness of acquired information in meeting daily needs. This indicates that SNS serve as a valuable channel for purposeful everyday life information seeking. Beyond its social support value, the ELIS value of SNS is a fruitful area for future research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For public libraries to achieve effective strategic planning, they must know who uses the public library and who does not use it. This study examines the characteristics of users and non-users of the public libraries using socio-demographic data from the Current Population Survey, a nationally representative survey of over 50,000 households conducted during October 13–19, 2002, and library services data from the Public Libraries Survey 2002. The study finds 34 variables to be significant. These variables including factors that have not often been studied, such as distance from the library, age/school attendance status, use of other types of library, and public library expenditure per state capita. It is also worth noting that disadvantaged groups, including ethnic minorities, recent immigrants, and people with disabilities, were less likely to use public libraries. This was true even after other factors such as education and income were held constant. The study provides a national-level assessment of the under-served populations. It also offers triangulation to other existing research, particularly qualitative information behavior studies of specific groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This cohort study examined longitudinal changes in undergraduates' use of social media as information sources in academic and everyday-life contexts, covering types of social media used, purposes of use, and evaluation strategies. Web surveys were used, collecting data from 1,355 and 928 undergraduates in 2013 and 2019. The study found that students used most types of social media less in 2019 than 2013 in both contexts. Only media-sharing services bucked this downward pattern. Overall, a majority of social media types underwent changes in the top three purposes of use. The 2019 cohort used most evaluation strategies more frequently in both contexts. However, they favored simplistic strategies relying on superficial physical cues when evaluating information. Based on the findings, this study provided recommendations for information literacy education and interface design, such as covering multimedia information evaluation, leveraging various heuristics to prime careful use of social media and analytical evaluation of information. • Students frequently used Wikis and Media-sharing services in both academic and everyday-life information-seeking contexts. • Media-sharing services was the only social media type with an increase in use in both contexts. • While using most social media less, students evaluated information from social media more frequently in both contexts. • Students evaluated information from SNS, Media-sharing services, and Microblogs more frequently in both contexts. • Students used superficial physical cues of information (e.g., length, image quality) for evaluation more in 2019 than 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]