The rise of digital technologies has the potential to open new directions in ethnography. Despite the ubiquity of these technologies, their infiltration into popular sociological research methods is still limited compared to the insatiable uptake of online scholarly research portals. This article argues that social researchers cannot afford to continue this trend. Building upon pioneering work in 'digital ethnography', I critically examine the possibilities and problems of four new technologies — online questionnaires, digital video, social networking websites, and blogs — and their potential impacts on the research relationship. The article concludes that a balanced combination of physical and digital ethnography not only gives researchers a larger and more exciting array of methods, but also enables them to demarginalize the voice of respondents. However, access to these technologies remains stratified by class, race, and gender of both researchers and respondents.

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Digital Ethnography : An Examination of the Use of New Technologies for Social Research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and promote a realistic understanding of young people and digital technology with a view to supporting information professionals in playing useful and meaningful roles in supporting current generations of young people. In particular the paper aims to offer a critical perspective on popular and political understandings of young people and digital technologies – characterised by notions of “digital natives”, the “net generation” and other commonsense portrayals of expert young technology users. The paper seeks to consider the accuracy of such descriptions in reflecting young people's actual uses of digital technology and digital information.Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a comprehensive review of the recent published literatures on young people and digital technology in information sciences, education studies and media/communication studies.Findings – The findings show that young people's engagements with digital technologies are varied and...

The digital native – myth and reality

Rigorous evidence identification is essential for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (evidence syntheses) because the sample selection of relevant studies determines a review's outcome, validity, and explanatory power. Yet, the search systems allowing access to this evidence provide varying levels of precision, recall, and reproducibility and also demand different levels of effort. To date, it remains unclear which search systems are most appropriate for evidence synthesis and why. Advice on which search engines and bibliographic databases to choose for systematic searches is limited and lacking systematic, empirical performance assessments. This study investigates and compares the systematic search qualities of 28 widely used academic search systems, including Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science. A novel, query-based method tests how well users are able to interact and retrieve records with each system. The study is the first to show the extent to which search systems can effectively and efficiently perform (Boolean) searches with regards to precision, recall, and reproducibility. We found substantial differences in the performance of search systems, meaning that their usability in systematic searches varies. Indeed, only half of the search systems analyzed and only a few Open Access databases can be recommended for evidence syntheses without adding substantial caveats. Particularly, our findings demonstrate why Google Scholar is inappropriate as principal search system. We call for database owners to recognize the requirements of evidence synthesis and for academic journals to reassess quality requirements for systematic reviews. Our findings aim to support researchers in conducting better searches for better evidence synthesis.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jrsm.1378

Which Academic Search Systems are Suitable for Systematic Reviews or Meta‐Analyses? Evaluating Retrieval Qualities of Google Scholar, PubMed and 26 other Resources

Social commentators in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States are beginning to recognise that encouraging older adults' use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is essential for the creation of bona fide information societies. To date, however, few studies have examined in detail older adults' access to and use of ICTs. This important aspect of the interaction between population ageing and societal change is more complex than the published literature's portrayal of a dichotomy between ‘successful users’ and ‘unsuccessful non-users’. The paper examines the extent and nature of ICT access and use by older adults in their everyday lives. Information was collected from a sub-sample of 352 adults aged 60 or more years taken from a large household survey of ICT use in England and Wales among 1,001 people. The findings suggest that using a computer is not only a minority activity amongst older adults but also highly stratified by gender, age, marital status and educational background. Conversely, non-use of computers can be attributed to their low relevance and ‘relative advantage’ to older people. The paper concludes by considering how political and academic assumptions about older people and ICTs might be refocused, away from trying to ‘change’ older adults, and towards involving them in changing ICT.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0144686X03001302

Older adults' use of information and communications technology in everyday life

Social commentators are beginning to recognise that encouraging older adults’ use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is an essential prerequisite for (over)developed countries such as the United Kingdom becoming bone fide information societies. To date, however, few studies have examined older adults’ access to and use of ICTs in detail. This important aspect of the interaction between population ageing and societal change is more complex than the existing literature’s portrayal of a dichotomy between ‘successful users’ and ‘unsuccessful non-users’. We still know little, for example, about the reasons and motivations underlying older adults’ adoption or non-adoption of ICTs. We also know little about the nature of this use and the support which older adults draw upon regarding ICTs. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we know little about the outcomes and ‘life-fit’ of older adults’ (non)use of ICTs. The paper examines the extent and nature of ICT access and use by older adults in their everyday lives through two sources of data: (i) information collected from a sub-sample of 352 adults aged over sixty years taken from a large household survey of ICT use in England and Wales among 1,001 people, and; (ii) follow-up interview data from thirty-five of these individuals. The findings suggest that using a computer is not only a minority activity amongst older adults but also highly stratified activity by gender, age, marital status and educational background. Conversely, non-use of computers can be attributed to the low relevance and ‘relative advantage’ to older adults’ lives. From this analysis the paper highlights the key issue of many older adults’ ambivalence towards ICT in light of the limited relevance of new technologies to their day-to-day lives. The paper concludes by considering what steps can be taken to facilitate wider use of ICT by older adults; in particular how political and academic assumptions about older people and ICTs might be refocused, away from trying to ‘change’ older adults, and towards involving older adults in changing ICT.

The information aged: older adults’ use of information and communications technology in everyday life

The Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future

This article reports on a large-scale international survey of authors' perception and experience of the journals system conducted by ciber in association with National Opinion Polls (NOP). It explores the factors that inform authors' decisions where to publish and, in particular, which groups of readers they perceive to be most important. It probes readership behaviour and the values that underlie authors' attitudes towards copyright and emerging business models, notably open access. It is concluded that many aspects of author behaviour are highly conservative and that a significant shift towards open access is, in the short to medium term, highly unlikely.

Scholarly communication in the digital environment: what do authors want?

The growth of the Internet and other digital media has opened up exciting opportunities for the provision of public services, for business and for personal transactions. Comparisons between the earliest forms of “online” research, in the form of telephone interviewing, and offline data collection via face‐to‐face interviews or self‐completion questionnaires, revealed that the modality within which research was conducted could affect research findings. In examining the evidence, this paper indicates that the use of online methodologies has important implications for sampling, response rates, quality of data produced, and operational practices in research projects. Online research is restricted to individuals with access to relevant technologies (e.g. the Internet) and where online technology penetration is limited, survey samples are unlikely to represent the general population. Online surveys, however, can produce quicker response rates than offline surveys and also richer open‐ended responses. The important point is to recognise the strengths and weaknesses are associated with different methodologies and what differences can exist between online and offline data collection procedures.

Online versus offline research: implications for evaluating digital media

Information professionals have featured strongly in the evaluation of the use of commercial online hosts and online public access catalogues, but not so strongly in the evaluation of the use of web...

Evaluating consumer website logs: a case study of The Times/The Sunday Times website:

Public touch screen information systems or kiosks have become a popular way of delivering consumer information and much of the user activity is automatically recorded in electronic log files. Fortunately for the information professional, log files are a significant source for understanding the information seeking behaviour of consumers., Surprisingly, however, there has been no discussion in the literature on what metrics are available for their evaluation. This paper seeks to address this problem and examines the metrics that can be generated from touch screen kiosk logs. The research reported here forms part of a Department of Health funded study, which is evaluating the use and impact of 70 health kiosks located in medical and other locations throughout the UK [1]. The way that kiosks function and the contents of their log files are described. Metrics are discussed in the context of the data generated from a touch screen health kiosk in Wakefield. Aggregate use, user numbers and descriptive statistics ...

Paul Huntington

Papers

The Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future

Scholarly communication in the digital environment: what do authors want?

Online versus offline research: implications for evaluating digital media

Evaluating consumer website logs: a case study of The Times/The Sunday Times website:

Establishing metrics for the evaluation of touch screen kiosks