Early Integrators and the Passive Majority: An evaluation study of a large web-based bibliographic reference database

Eason, Ken, MacIntyre, Ross, Apps, Ann and Ashby, Martin Early Integrators and the Passive Majority: An evaluation study of a large web-based bibliographic reference database., 2003 . In The 2003 Conference on Users in the Electronic Information Environments (UEIE2003 - Towards a User-Centered Approach to Digital Libraries), Espoo (Finland), 8-9 September 2003. [Conference paper]

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English abstract

An evaluation is reported of user responses to zetoc, a service that provides access to the British Library electronic table of contents database and an email alerting service. Two questionnaire surveys and an interview programme gave data on over 800 users. The results show that about 17% are active users who are achieving a personal information management routine by integrating zetoc with other services (the early integrators). The other 83%, the `passive majority', make limited use of zetoc and do not achieve integration with other services. The interviews reveal that some of this group have a stable but restricted usage routine that limits information overload. The usage by others is less controlled and they make little use of the information they receive. The paper examines the impact of enhancements to the zetoc service to support integration and it discusses the barriers that prevent many users exploiting the potential of services available to them.

Item type:	Conference paper
Keywords:	user behaviour, electronic journals, current awareness
Subjects:	J. Technical services in libraries, archives, museum.
Depositing user:	Ann Apps
Date deposited:	30 Jul 2008
Last modified:	02 Oct 2014 12:12
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/10760/12171

References

Carnall D. (2002) `Website of the week: email alerting services' British Medical Journal, January, 324:56

Eason K.D., Yu L. and Harker S.D (2000a).`The use and usefulness of functions in electronic journals: the experience of the SuperJournal Project' Program, 34.1 1-28

Eason K.D., Yu L. and Richardson S.M. (2000b) `Patterns of use of Electronic Journals', Journal of Documentation, Vol 56(5) pp 477-504.

Pullinger D. and Baldwin C. (2002) 'Electronic Journals and User Behaviour' Cambridge, Deedot Press

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