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In the digital age, public libraries are facing numerous challenges, and the Balochistan public libraries are no exception. This study aimed to identify current digital trends adopted by the public libraries in Balochistan and to find out about challenges and potential solutions regarding digital trends from library users.

A quantitative study was carried out and data were collected through the survey method, employing a structured questionnaire. The target population consisted of 17,953 users of 17 public libraries in Balochistan. A sample of 510 users both male and female was selected by using random sampling technique from the target population.

The analysis revealed that patrons of public libraries are dissatisfied with the services offered, as they now require access to new digital trends such as fast Internet, download facilities, unlimited content on numerous resources, Wi-Fi, online reference services, universal accessibility and user-friendly interfaces. Unfortunately, public libraries in Balochistan are still lagging in terms of development. The study recommended that public libraries in Balochistan should develop and implement digital services, increase access to digital resources, hire professional librarians, professional development and collaborate with other libraries.

The study’s findings can assist in improving public library services and granting patrons access to current information and resources in Balochisthan and other developing countries. This study’s originality stems from its use of a quantitative survey approach to gather data from 17 public libraries in Balochisthan and provide a comprehensive view of the digital challenges they face. The study’s focus on digital tendencies is relevant in today’s world, where technology is rapidly changing the way, we access and consume information.

Culture is considered a critical aspect of social media usage. The purpose of this paper is to explore how cultures and languages influence multilingual users' cross-cultural information sharing patterns.

This study used a crowdsourcing survey with Amazon Mechanical Turk to collect qualitative and quantitative data from 355 multilingual users who utilize two or more languages daily. A mixed-method approach combined statistical, and cluster analysis with thematic analysis was employed to analyze information sharing patterns among multilingual users in the Chinese cultural context.

It was found that most multilingual users surveyed preferred to share in their first and second language mainly because that is what others around them speak or use. Multilingual users have more diverse sharing characteristics and are more actively engaged in social media. The results also provide insights into what incentives make multilingual users engage in social media to share information related to Chinese culture with the MOA model. Finally, the ten motivation factors include learning, entertainment, empathy, personal gain, social engagement, altruism, self-expression, information, trust and sharing culture. One opportunity factor is identified, which is convenience. Three ability factors are recognized consist of self-efficacy, habit and personality.

The findings are conducive to promoting the active participation of multilingual users in online communities, increasing global resource sharing and information flow and promoting the consumption of digital cultural content.

This research aims to investigate the impact of the collaborative governance mechanism on the implementation of rural governance information systems in developing countries. By integrating institutional logic theory, affordance theory and social identity theory, the authors propose modeling grassroots officials' affordance perception process and exploring the importance of multi-identities’ information technology (IT) goals in affordance perception.

Through an exploratory case study, the authors identified three affordances of rural governance information systems and investigated the mechanisms influencing the perception of these affordances among grassroots officials. Next, the authors established a research model and collected 490 valid questionnaires from grassroots officials in China and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The authors' study challenges previous assumptions by integrating institutional logic, affordance and social identity theories. The authors establish a perceived affordance path for rural governance information systems, recognize substitute effects among technological affordances and extend the theory to explain social factors influencing IT perception. The authors' findings suggest providing technical training for grassroots officials to enhance IT capabilities, and governments should prioritize essential functionalities in rural governance information systems to optimize resources. Training on collaborative governance mechanisms can improve IT affordance perception, enhancing digital platform utilization in governance processes.

The study was conducted mainly in China, and therefore, the findings may not be universal to other developing countries. Researchers are therefore encouraged to test the proposal in locations with different rural cultures.

The paper includes implications for the development of IT perception in rural governance, the development of affordance perception theory and studying the relationship between IT goals and affordance perception.

Overall, this paper addresses the need to understand how grassroots officials perceive IT affordances in rural governance and study the relationship between multi-identities’ goals and affordance perception.

This study holistically and systematically consolidates the available research on digital reading to reveal the research trends of the past 20 years. Moreover, it explores the thematic evolution, hotspots and developmental characteristics of digital reading. This study, therefore, has the potential to serve as a research guide to researchers and educators in relevant fields.

The authors applied a bibliometric approach using Derwent Data Analyzer and VOSviewer to retrieve 2,456 publications for 2003–2022 from the Web of Science (WoS) database.

The results revealed that most studies' participants were university students and the experimental methods and questionnaires were preferred in digital reading researches. Among the influential countries or regions, institutions, journals and authors, the United States of America, University of London, Electronic Library and Chen, respectively, accounted for the greatest number of publications. Moreover, the authors identified the developmental characteristics and research trends in the field of digital reading by analyzing the evolution of keywords from 2003–2017 to 2018–2022 and the most frequently cited papers by year. “E-books,” “reading comprehension” and “literacy” were the primary research topics. In addition, “attention,” “motivation,” “cognitive load,” “dyslexia,” “engagement,” “eye-tracking,” “eye movement,” “systematic analysis,” “meta-analysis,” “smartphone” and “mobile reading/learning” were potential new research hotspots.

This study provides valuable insights into the current status, research direction, thematic evolution and developmental characteristics in the field of digital reading. Therefore, it has implications for publishers, researchers, librarians, educators and teachers in the digital reading field.

The pandemic had a huge negative impact globally on small and micro firms, particularly on cultural enterprises, making it imperative for them to create strategic solutions for sustainable business models and customer relationships. This chapter studies the digital interventions employed by the micro cultural enterprises in the Japanese Onsens (Hot baths) sector during the pandemic period in Japan. Using the theoretical lenses of service dominant logic and value creation, the study extracts four prominent value creation processes from the analysis of the employed secondary data. The study underlines the importance of collaboration between a firm's internal and external resources, their creative use of operant resources, and a robust customer orientation leading to creative digitalization. The results of the study show how cultural enterprises can rethink customer service in the cultural and creative sector. It also draws attention to the need for more robust policies and support systems that can encourage global cultural enterprises to develop sustainable business models.

The evolving visitors' expectations and the unfolding digital transformation compel rethinking on the service offering of museums and cultural institutions. Although digitalization and people-centeredness are widely exploited to enhance the visiting experience, there is limited evidence of their implications on organizational attractiveness. The article investigates this issue, examining the service attributes that entice visitors.

The study collected secondary data from the latest census study by the Italian Institute of Statistics on museums and cultural institutions. Two hierarchical regression models have been run on a sample of large publicly owned organizations (n = 312) to identify the service factors that were most effective in attracting Italian and foreign visitors.

Museums and cultural institutions undergoing a digital transformation were more effective in attracting visitors. The delivery of virtual tours and online events captivated the Italian audience. Foreigners appreciated the opportunity to use applications augmenting the on-site visit.

Digitalization and people-centeredness improve the attractiveness of museums and cultural institutions. Using digital channels to engage visitors fosters their desire to interact with cultural heritage. Furthermore, digitalization enriches the on-site visit, expanding conventional services with virtuality. However, the adverse effects on cultural heritage should be carefully handled.

This study highlights the service attributes that add to the attractiveness of museums and cultural institutions, enabling them to engage visitors and improve the visiting experience.

Online/Digital cultural heritage platforms have the potential to serve as empowering sites and tools for democratic participation, and for promoting social cohesion, acting as convergence points for diverse societal groups. They enable the gathering of multiple voices, including those of minorities and groups often marginalised in mainstream cultural heritage documentation. This research paper examines the ways in which these aspirations of cultural heritage platforms as meeting, learning and dialogic spaces for connecting and empowering online communities have been realised.

Using a qualitative design, interviews were conducted with users of New Zealand’s Auckland War Memorial Museum’s Online Cenotaph. Participants shared their experiences with the platform, perceptions of it as a collective social history resource and views on its role as a participatory space for online communities. They also discussed their expectations for its development as an online space for collective memorialisation.

Interviews revealed that users value Online Cenotaph for placing personal, publicly contributed memories and narratives alongside primary military sources. Participants expressed feelings of civic responsibility, social awareness and a sense of identity and connection through their use and contribution to this online commemorative space. The shift from a one-way flow of information from the Museum towards embracing public contribution embodying a high-trust approach, was a notable finding.

This research underscores the evolving role of museums and other GLAM institutions in recognising the importance of inclusivity, diversity and community participation. It provides insights into how digital cultural heritage social platforms can contribute towards these goals and promote social cohesion. This research is also a starting point for further studies on crowdsourcing and social Web activities on digital cultural heritage platforms as sites of community building through public participation and engagement in historical/cultural heritage narratives.

This study aims to examine the role of trust and digital literacy in influencing citizens’ adoption of e-government services.

Grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM), a research model was developed focusing on e-filing services adoption. Hypotheses were formulated to assess the moderating effect of digital literacy on the relationship between trust and the key TAM determinants of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. A questionnaire-based survey of 876 citizens who have used e-filing using the snow-ball sampling technique was adopted to generate data. The data was analyzed using PLS-SEM through the aid of SmartPLS 4 to assess the measurement model and structural relationships.

Trust positively influences perceived usefulness and ease of use, which in turn drive adoption. Additionally, digital literacy significantly moderates the impact of trust on usefulness and ease of use perceptions – the effect is stronger for higher digital literacy.

The study adopted a single country developing economy context limiting cross-cultural applicability. Second, the focus on e-filing adoption precludes insights across other e-government services. Third, the reliance on perceptual measures risks respondent biases and fourth, the study is a cross-sectional survey design.

The findings emphasize multifaceted strategies to accelerate e-government adoption. Nurturing citizen trust in e-government systems through enhanced reliability, security and transparency remains vital. Simultaneously, initiatives to cultivate digital access, skills and proficiencies across population segments need to be undertaken.

This study integrates trust and digital literacy within the theoretical model to provide a more holistic understanding of adoption determinants. It highlights the need for balanced technology-enabled and social interventions to foster acceptance of e-government services.

The current body of empirical research regarding the impact of trust in the cybersecurity commitment of institutions on digital payment usage has focused solely on a macro-level analysis, overlooking the intricate dynamics between institutions' cybersecurity commitments and the trust levels of digital payment users. In light of this limitation, this study aims to offer a more comprehensive understanding of this complex relationship.

A case study was conducted on digital payment users in India through the critical realist lens. To gather data, interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with digital payment users from various regions of the country.

The citizen-centric outcomes of the national cybersecurity commitment (performance and responsiveness) are the most prominent and impactful trust indicators. These outcomes play a crucial role in shaping digital payment users' perception and trust in the cybersecurity commitment of public institutions. Individuals' value positions also influence trust judgments, as it is essential to recognize the value tensions that may arise due to security implementation and their congruence with citizens' values.

The findings of this study have significant implications for policymakers. They are potentially an artifact of the security and perception of digital payment users and the cultural uniqueness of digital payment users in India.

The study proposes a holistic understanding of the relationship between institutions' cybersecurity commitments and the trust levels of digital payment users. It offers a qualitative evaluation of how digital payment users perceive and construe efficient information security management implemented by public institutions.