Digital Divide

There are two articles I have just read, as I am trying to get a handle on the ‘Digital Divide.’ These article are:

• Van Dijk and Hacker (2003) The digital divide as a complex and dynamic phenomenon
• Yu (2006) Understanding information inequality.

Both of these articles provided a taste of what is a large area of study with many facets and subsets; whether you are looking at the digital divide from an international nation state perspective or from an individual citizens access to local information. It is going to be difficult to write a brief summary paper of only 2000 words on this subject!

Anyone got any other recommendations for articles to read?

Digital Divide

Today I start on another small project – a brief review of the Digital Divide. Wanting to learn from the mistakes of my previous small project on Information Seeking Behaviour I must limit this to 2000 words and not go overboard with references.

Teaching getting closer

Today I collected the work books I had amended and needed photocopying for the teaching I will be doing of the MSc Information Studies course. I will be teaching Dialog Classic, so need spent the afternoon brushing up on my command based searching. It has been sometime since I used command based searching, but it is coming back to me! I will still need to work through the workbook and course material prior to next Thursday and my first lecture.

Beyond a joke

It is getting beyond a joke – this very brief summary of the development of information seeking behaviour has taken far too long. Nevertheless, it has been a very interesting journey, with numerous visits to the British Library following those references. I will finish it today – promise.

No time in the day

Where are the day’s going? This week has vanished before my eyes. I have been very busy putting a piece of work I started in July – a brief historiography of information seeking. It is only three thousand words, but has taken me far too long. Too many visits to the British Library—I also feel that I am such a slow writer, especially when I allow myself to get distracted following up more references!

DialogClassic Workbook

Today I spent the day looking through and amending the workbook and material I will be teaching in a few weeks time. Essentially, I will be teaching DialogClassic to the Masters Students. As with all of these things, the work book needs updating especially as Dialog have changed the interface. I need to get this book into reprographics – that’s tomorrow’s job!

Barriers to information

Harris, R. M., & Dewdney: (1994). Barriers to information: How formal help systems fail battered women. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press.

Here is an excellent book that I have been looking reading. The book is very easy to read (that’s always good for me) and concludes with their influential six principles, illustrating way in which citizens can overcome information barriers.