Leo Appleton School of Computing – Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation (Centre for Social Informatics).Part time PhD student, 2nd year
Supervisors: Professor Hazel Hall (@hazelh), Professor Alistair Duff, Professor Robert Raeside
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“The value and impact of public libraries within the Information Society : their contribution to citizenship development.”
@leoappleton20
Background to this research
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Literature review themes
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• Role of the public library
• Value and impact as performance measures
• Exchange theory
• Information Society
• Social capital, Human capital, Transactional capital
• Concept of citizenship
Theoretical concepts
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• Borrowed theory
• Exchange theory and social exchange theory
• Information Society Studies• Information sector• Information flows• Information technology• Information overload
• Social capital• Public libraries creating and generating social
capital
Research questions
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To what extent is an individual’s position advantaged or disadvantaged as a result of using public libraries?
What is the impact of using a public library service on individual and community citizenship?
Methodology
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Focus group methodology
Longitudinal cohort approach to focus groupsEach focus group is convened 3 times during the course of the study
Scope of projectRepresentative of UK library users
Pilot focus group (Liverpool, 2014)
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Pilot findings
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“When I come in, I have a dead positive vibe, when I walk through the doors straight away, ‘cos I know that I only need to spend fifteen minutes in here, and I’ll have lost myself in a book…. You don’t care what’s going on!”
“I could be quite dramatic and say that reading saved my life!”
Pilot group discussion
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Empirical research
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Edinburgh
Liverpool
Newcastle
LincolnEssex
Devon
RedbridgeSutton
Focus group management
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Autumn 2015
Winter 2015
Spring 2016
Summer 2016
Autumn 2016
Winter 2016
Spring 2017
Summer 2017
Autumn 2017
Winter 2017
Liverpool #2 #3Lincoln #1 #2 #3Edinburgh #1 #2 #3Newcastle #1 #2 #3Devon #1 #2 #3Essex #1 #2 #3Redbridge #1 #2 #3Sutton #1 #2 #3
Themes from round 1
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• Access• Inclusion• Knowledge• Digital citizenship• Professional support• Societal impact
Knowledge
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Inclusion
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Access
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Digital citizenship
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Professional support
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Societal impact
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Initial conclusions
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What’s next?
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