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In the first decades of ICT adoption, Whites traditionally had higher levels of Internet access and usage. We examine whether race remains a factor in Internet usage, among a group presumed to be digital natives – middle school students.

A survey was administered to a racially/ethnically diverse sample of students in a mid-Atlantic school district including White, Hispanic, African American, and Asian/Pacific Islander. The survey sought to measure time spent engaged in varying Internet activities and related sociodemographic factors.

The analyses indicate that Whites do not have higher levels of Internet usage, and in many cases racial minority youth are more engaged in Internet activities than Whites. This holds true when accounting for a number of sociodemographic and background factors that are known to affect Internet usage.

This chapter adds to the evidence that within the United States the digital divide has become more about the “other dimensions” such as how the Internet is used, rather than merely access or ownership (e.g., first level digital divide issues) at the middle school level.

This chapter will be beneficial to researchers who study the digital divide and those who seek to understand the myriad uses of computers among youth. It will also be beneficial for those who seek to integrate computer interventions in schools. This study includes one of the most diverse samples of middle school students in the United States. The results suggest that there are multiple dimensions to the digital divide and that patterns of use are changing among middle school youth.

THE DC‐10 era is effecting subtle changes in the maintenance procedures. The basic objectives of maintaining safe equipment at a reasonable cost have not changed. The means of achieving the objectives are changing. Digital equipment, which has so much to offer in terms of reliability, capability, and cost, will require a new degree of sophistication on the part of maintenance people and equipment. Digital circuits operate on the basis of information transfer at a high cyclic rate. The control of this data transfer is the function of special purpose digital computers. Although the computer has cither serial or parallel arithmetic organisation, the output information is in a serial digital format at a reasonably high output rate. These system characteristics have resulted in maintenance people requiring a new type of electronics knowledge — the ability to work with digital logic diagrams, computer organisation and computer programs. The performance data cannot be readily evaluated by voltage measurements or analog traces on an XY recorder as has been accomplished in the past. At the same time that the equipment is becoming more difficult to understand and test, manual testing is becoming more lengthy and, in some respects, tedious because of the digital mechanisation of the functions. Airlines will not be able to afford to use their skilled maintenance technicians for routine tasks. They will be better utilised for troubleshooting problems. As a result, the relatively unsophisticated test benches of the past are becoming obsolete and are being replaced by either sophisticated manual test equipment or sophisticated automatic test equipment.

It has been a decade, as the collaboration between the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) and the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) to extend information and communication technology (ICT) and library services to rural deprived, unserved and underserved communities in Ghana dubbed the library connectivity project. This paper aims to evaluate this initiative from the perspective of relevant key stakeholders and through the lens of the digital inclusion model.

The study adopted a qualitative approach to evaluate the library connectivity project offered to deprived communities in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Interviews were conducted with the head librarians, ICT teachers and school librarians. Focus group discussions were held with pupils from four beneficiary schools of the project. The researchers also witnessed four of the outreach programmes and training sessions and observed the mode of instruction.

The study brought to fore the enormous benefits of the library connectivity project as it aided school pupils to acquire practical ICT skills, which were found to be useful towards their final exam. Despite the enormous benefit of the project, it was bereft with a lot of challenges such as inadequate logistics and personnel thereby restricting the project to very few schools. Low staff motivation and unmotorable roads were also found to be a challenge, which could all be as a result of lack of funds.

The paper underscores the importance of computer and information literacy and reveals how the GhLA is using innovative mobile library services to bridge the digital divide through the library connectivity project.

This paper makes a further contribution to the paucity of literature on the role of mobile libraries in the promotion of computer and information literacy.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a 40‐hour computer course for beginners provided to a group of unemployed women learners with no/minimum computer literacy skills who can be characterized as digital immigrants. The aim of the study is to identify participants' perceptions and experiences regarding technology, any barriers and challenges faced throughout the computer course and the extent to which the computer course assisted them in becoming computer literate and employable. This case study was based on the European Commission's EQUAL program.

A case study approach was employed making use of qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data were collected using three different questionnaires (the background questionnaire, the Loyd/Gressard Computer Attitude Scale questionnaire and the Computer Skills Tests questionnaire) and qualitative data were collected through two focus groups. A total of nine unemployed women with no/minimum computer literacy skills were the focus of investigation. The 40‐hour computer literacy course and the data collection process took place in May‐June 2007.

Results demonstrated the effectiveness and necessity of computer courses for digital immigrants. The participants developed an acceptable level of computer literacy skills and a more positive attitude towards technology. They further realized the importance of possessing computer literacy skills specifically in relation to their employability, professional path and career development. Their self‐esteem in relation to technology was also increased on professional, educational, and personal levels.

The study confirms the necessity to explore further instructional design and implementation of digital immigrants' education and training regarding computer technology.

To explore the meaning, methods and techniques associated with the subject of computer forensics and consider the implications of computer forensics for records managers and recordkeeping.

Critically analyses the principles of computer forensics in the context of records characteristics – authenticity, reliability, integrity and usability – and the UK Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) principles and procedures for the collection of digital evidence.

The disciplines of records management and computer forensics are potentially mutually compatible. Computer forensics allows for identification of incidents, gathering of evidence, analysis of evidence and potentially recovery of records. Records managers can utilise computer forensics principles to positively enhance records management and have valuable knowledge and expertise to share with their computer forensics colleagues; e.g. metadata expertise, functional requirements for electronic records management, recordkeeping systems design and implementation methodologies, digital preservation and retention management.

Discusses how computer forensics can be used to highlight inadequate recordkeeping and provide a different perspective on records management based on an analysis of principles and concepts rather than empirical data.

Highlights the need for records managers to understand computer forensics and computer forensic scientists to understand recordkeeping to support better records management in the electronic environment; raises the implications for educators, trainers and professional societies.

Very little has been published on the discussion of the potential implications of computer forensics for records managers or how computer forensics can enhance the records management discipline; this paper addresses the gap.

Disaster management is an issue that has received relatively little attention in libraries, particularly in India. With the growth in digital resources in libraries, it is necessary for librarians to understand and apply the ways of protecting digital data and the related equipment from disaster. The purpose of this paper is to address the issues related to digital data protection in libraries in India. It aims to investigate the perceptions of librarians about the probability of digital disasters happening in their libraries, and to assess the level of digital disaster preparedness among libraries.

A questionnaire based survey of 276 libraries in the Western region of India was conducted to find out the digital data protection measures taken by them. The paper provides an overview and analysis of the general trends in digital data protection in these libraries.

The research results indicate that due to lack of knowledge about handling of digital data, and inadequate digital infrastructure setup in organizations, the chances of loss of digital data are high. However, common measures like taking backup of data manually are mostly followed by all libraries. The paper has identified the trends in protection of digital data, as well as the lacunae, in Indian libraries. Basic guidelines on digital data preservation are also presented in the paper.

The guidelines provided in the paper will be useful to any libraries to take measures for protection of the digital data. The libraries will be able to prepare their digital data protection plan and train the staff accordingly.

This paper is the first to address the issue of digital disaster management in libraries in India. It provides a detailed analysis of digital data protection measures taken by Indian libraries currently.

The purpose of this paper is to show that digital natives are different from older age groups.

The first survey asks questions about general computer searching behaviors. The second survey asks the students to find two items to see if they can find them.

Digital natives are different in their search behavior, preferring to use web‐based search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

There are 120 respondents to the first survey and 27 in the second.

More focus needs to be placed on the digital natives' search habits to find out how best to serve this population.

Unless digital natives are taught how to search academic databases, they will be done a great disservice.

The two surveys are unique in data content.

This paper aims to determine the extent to which the myriad of cybercrimes is within the purview of extant Nigerian laws against the backdrop of the modicum of legal and institutional mechanisms available at international law for combating cybercrimes.

This study is library based. It relies on secondary data generated by the variegated multilateral agencies, law reports of international and municipal tribunals, relevant books, journals, monographs policy papers and so forth as the basis of analysis.

Findings suggest that cybercrimes are very difficult to unravel because their traces are imperceptible and require highly specialised skills and digital protocols to find, store and save them for evidential purposes. Such gathered evidence are in the form of digital data stored in variegated hardware and software media, such as storage peripherals, electronic components, working memory, hard discs and external discs. The difficulty is how to identify, weigh for evidential value and capture the multiplicity of evidence unearthed in a digital forensic investigation. The foregoing underscores the digital forensic problematic which is engendered by the difficulties of contriving a thoroughgoing concept of digital evidence given the malleable nature of the variegated storage media.

This paper engenders considerable acquaintance of the entire sphere of digital crimes and cyber threats, which is contended with in the information epoch, and recommends both legal and institutional mechanisms to counter the clear, real and present danger, which digital crimes represent for the survival of human civilisation, sustainable economic growth and development.

This paper dwells on the infinite potentiality of deploying the instrumentality of national and international law to deter, control and prosecute the myriad of cybercrimes.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a study set up to investigate and map the landscape of digital writing today. A holistic perspective has been adopted involving writers, readers and publishers alike.

The research uses a qualitative approach and combines interviews and direct observations. In in‐depth interviews 13 participants (four writers, four publishers, three readers and two on‐line readers) were questioned for their opinions on issues related to writing, publishing and reading digital fiction. The three readers were also observed while interacting, for the first time, with three digital stories.

Results show that the area is still unsettled though much excitement surrounds experimentations and freedom of publishing online. Readers seem uneasy with the role of co‐creators that writers want to assign them and prefer linear stories to more deconstructed ones. Writers like to experiment and combine multiple media and readers like to interact with multimedia stories; this seems to open interesting perspectives over interactive narrative. Publishers are not yet involved in digital writing and this is seen simultaneously as a blessing (unfiltering of innovative ideas) and a curse (lack of economical support, lack of quality selection). Despite disagreement and ambiguity all interviewees agree that digital fiction will come, likely prompted by new reading technology.

This paper is the first attempt to understand the phenomena of digital writing taking into consideration the perspectives of writers, readers and publishers simultaneously and comparing their different views.