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The purpose of this study is to examine and compare Chinese electronic resources and English electronic resources in terms of ease of use, usefulness and usage in the context of a Chinese university library, so as to facilitate the effective use of English electronic resources in China.

Data collection was conducted through a large scale survey. A total of 378 valid data coming from the users of a Chinese university library were used for data analysis.

There are more users in Chinese university library who perceived that Chinese electronic resources are both easy to use and useful while English electronic resources are neither easy to use nor useful. Meanwhile, there are more users who used Chinese electronic resources more frequently while used English electronic resources less frequently.

This study could advance our knowledge about the current status of the use of Chinese electronic resources and English electronic resources as well as the digital divide at the second‐level and the third‐level, facilitating the effective use of English electronic resources.

Building on three levels of the digital divide, this study examines and compares Chinese electronic resources and English electronic resources in terms of ease of use, usefulness and usage in the context of Chinese university library, providing a new view for library electronic resources management research and practice alike.

Despite the pendulum swing from utopian to dystopian views of the Internet, the direction of the popular and academic literature continues to lean toward its liberatory potential, particularly as a tool for redressing social inequality. At the same time, decades of digital inequality scholarship have shown persistent socioeconomic inequality in Internet access and use. Yet most of this research captures class by individualized income and education variables, rather than a power relational framework. By tracing research on how fear, control, and risk manifest itself with inequalities related to digital content, digital activism, and digital work, I argue that a narrow stratification approach may miss the full cause and effect of digital inequality. Instead, a class analysis based on power relations may contribute to a broader and more precise theoretical lens to understand the digital divide. As a result, technology can reinforce, or even exacerbate, existing patterns of social and economic inequality because of this power differential.

This paper presents a framework to measure the digital divide by considering a more comprehensive index of information and communication technology (ICT) predictors. The authors also address the conceptual and methodological problems in the digital divide field, given that its focus has been shifted from technological access to higher-order divides over the years. The proposed framework is hypothesized and tested in the context of unemployed and underemployed residents in Singapore.

Through a quantitative survey, 302 unemployed and underemployed workers were asked what ICT “access”, “usage” and “appropriation” meant to them. Factor analyses were deployed to identify the underlying, granular dimensions of ICT access, usage and appropriation.

The factor analyses revealed an interesting breakdown of the main factors of ICT access, usage and appropriation. The authors found that one's purpose for which technology is accessed, used and appropriated determines how each of the levels of ICT assets is defined. Thus, the authors propose new operational definitions for ICT access, usage and appropriation based on the analyses.

This study aims to provide a more robust measure of the digital divide from access, capabilities to outcomes. The authors hope that this framework, besides complementing current digital divide models, can be applied to different types of participants.

Individual differences are critical in determining how individuals think and behave in different ways. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of individual differences on users’ perceptions of print and electronic resources in terms of ease of use, usefulness and usage in the hopes that a better understanding of these effects can help Chinese university libraries to meet the diversified information needs of their users more specifically and appropriately so that the second-level capability divide and third-level outcome divide of library information resources can be much reduced.

Data collected from 273 library users were used for data analysis. The independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and two-way ANOVA were employed. Meanwhile, the quantitative analysis is supplemented by the qualitative interviews which present richer data about the use of specific types of print and electronic resources.

The effect of basic characteristics (gender, age, field) and experience (experience with library print resources, experience with library electronic resources, which library resources were used first) on users’ perceptions of print and electronic resources in terms of ease of use, usefulness and usage was explored and discussed. Meanwhile, the two-way interaction effect was examined and 13 significant interaction effects were presented.

Building on the digital divide, this study examines ease of use, usefulness and usage in terms of individual differences which cover not only basic characteristics but also experience and two-way interaction, which the authors think provides a new view for library information resources research and practice alike in China.

This study firstly aims to prepare a hierarchical structure of the barriers contributing to digital exclusion of women. Secondly, the study aims to understand the inter-relationship of the barriers by converting them into a cyclic flow.

Systematic review was conducted through Web of Science and EBSCO Host Discovery Services with keywords: “digital divide” OR “digital gap” OR “digital inequality” OR “online difference” AND gender AND wom?n AND factors OR “demographic factors” OR “socio-economic” OR determinants OR reasons OR causes OR influences. Review was conducted of articles published in English language after 2012. Systematic literature review was conducted in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Framework 2020. Authors reviewed 21 reports.

This research found absence of education as the root of digital exclusion of women in the hierarchy of barriers. The cyclic flow of barriers displayed that how ill education of women lead to financial and psychological dependence of women on men, creating a hurdle in women empowerment. To break the cycle of digital exclusion, women education is must not only on primary basis but their tertiary education is important too.

This study makes an important contribution by ranking those barriers in a pyramid hierarchy and depicting their inter relation by framing a cyclic structure. This study provides suggestions to remove those barriers and ultimately break their chain to provide digital inclusive society for women.

In light of the shift in focus from information communication technology (ICT) access (access divide) and skills (skills divide) to the tangible impacts of ICT use (impact divide), a growing number of scholars have called for further investigation into the inter-territorial and multi-dimensional aspects of the digital divide in China. This study aims to address these gaps by examining the disparities across 31 provinces, particularly emphasizing the transition from the traditional access and skills divides to the impact divide.

Multivariate regression analysis extensively investigates the transition from the access and skills divides to the impact divide across 31 provinces. Additionally, ArcGIS software is used to analyze spatial agglomeration and the auto-correlation (Moran-i) and predict mapping patterns in the data corresponding to all three levels of the digital divide.

According to the study's findings, poverty is a significant factor in the digital divide between different regions in China. The research shows that provinces with advanced administrative systems, such as Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shandon and Zhejiang, have high scores on the digital development index (DDI). However, regions with poverty-ridden and rural areas, primarily located in southwest, central and western China, tend to have lower DDI scores.

This study offers a novel contribution to the literature by presenting an innovative conceptual framework that explores the impact divide within China's provinces. The authors also address this lacuna in the literature by developing and testing two dimensions to examine the relationships statistically under a wide range of socioeconomic and ICT indicators.

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.

Over the past few years, technology-mediated learning has established itself as a valuable pathway towards learners’ academic and social development. However, within the adoption stages of information and communications technology-enabled education, further questions have been raised in terms of equity of information literacy and learning outcomes. For the past three years, the authors have been working with one of the earliest secondary schools in New Zealand to introduce a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. In this paper, the authors present the findings of a longitudinal investigation into the BYOD project, which offers new insights into the digital divide issues in the context of evolving teaching and learning practices across three levels, namely, digital access, digital capability and digital outcome.

This study is an empirically grounded longitudinal case research conducted over a three-year period in one secondary school in New Zealand. This research has included a number of methods, including surveys, interviews and classroom observations, to gather qualitative data from various stakeholders (teachers, students and parents).

The findings from the study of the BYOD project inform of digital divide issues in the context of evolving teaching and learning practices across formal and informal spaces. The authors explored how the BYOD policy has influenced existing divides in the learning process across three levels, namely, digital access, digital capability and digital outcome. The result sheds light on key issues affecting the learning process to contextualise factors in the three-level digital divide for the BYOD technology adoption process in classroom settings.

The study presents findings from an ongoing investigation of one secondary school, an early adopter of the BYOD policy. While the authors have followed the school for three years, more in-depth studies on how teaching and learning practices are evolving across formal and informal spaces will be further qualified in the next stages of data collection.

The study contributes to new knowledge on how digital inclusion can be supported beyond mere access to meaningful use of technology to reinforce student learning and their overall skill development.