The current study examined factors affecting higher education students’ use of a mobile-based Learning Management System (m-LMS) for distance education during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19). A survey instrument based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was established and validated. The primary data were gathered from 1032 responses. The data

This study aims to examine the impact of Internet development on the urban-rural income gap in China. By using a provincial level panel dataset comprising 31 of China’s provinces, it analyzes and compares the effects of the eastern, central, and western regions over the period of 2005–2016. The results show that Internet development aggravates the gap in the central region much more than that in the

Acceptance and and use of scientific findings have been reported to face challenges that are attributable to inadequacies of science and/or society’s inadequate scientific literacy and attitude. In view of the dearth of studies on these issues in Nigeria, this study explored the levels and variations in the scientific literacy, attitude to science, and persuasiveness of scientific compared to cultural

This study investigated the spatial-temporal variation and trend of the Internet user percentage (IUP) at the country level in the world from 1996 to 2017. Several methods were applied including kernel density estimation, global autocorrelations, sigma-convergence detection, and hierarchical clustering. The results demonstrated that the spatial distribution of IUP at the country level showed significant

The study examined the relationship between information technology and insurance development in 40 sub-Saharan African countries during the period 2000-2017. The study employed System Generalised Method of Moment for the estimations. Life insurance premiums, non-life insurance premiums and total insurance premiums are used to measure life insurance, non-life insurance and total insurance, respectively

Village libraries, which are generally voluntarily-operated, serve their local people with information and activities according to the local need. Volunteers manage libraries to provide information relevant to the locals’ interests and lines of work. This includes crops, fisheries, small home enterprises, as well as practices in preserving traditional cultures. In light of this, village libraries play

Nowadays, municipalities can provide services to citizens through information technologies, improving their massification and access. These are generally provided based on a country’s laws, but digitalization dissimilarities and the lack of guidelines complicate an equilibrium in their provision between the different municipalities of a country. On the other hand, enterprise architectures can be used

It is a pleasure and privilege to present, for the first time, an issue of Information Development, an extended issue in this case. The term information literacy is among the classic terms in library and information science (LIS), as it was coined in the 1970s, and it refers to an individual’s skills for using information, which includes information seeking, access, retrieval, evaluation, management

In recent years, the hotel industry has increasingly adopted social media, which play key roles in advertising, marketing, and promotions within the hotel industry. However, there has been relatively little empirical research on the relationship between using social media and job performance in hotel employees. This study aimed to examine the relationships between social media usage, social capital

With the unprecedented development of information and communication technologies, online learning is increasingly seen as an important channel for knowledge acquisition. Although knowledge payment platforms have attracted a considerable number of consumers, little is known about the determinants of purchase intention of online learning consumers for online paid courses (OPCs). In this study, we identify

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which librarians in Nigeria engaged in professional development workshops during the COVID-19 era. The study adopted a survey method using an online questionnaire. Factors such as saving money, the free nature of workshops, eliminating travel risk, in the comfort of the home, and providing an opportunity for all were mentioned as the benefits

Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is adversely affected by climate change and variability due to the dependence of its economies and livelihoods primarily on rain-fed agriculture. Agro-advisories boost informed decision-making as well as planning of farm activities. The purpose of this study was to characterize the pathways through which farmers receive usable location-specific agro-advisories

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) supports the sharing of information to improve the Quality of Governance (QoG). Many studies found a relationship between ICT diffusion and globalization and between ICT diffusion and the Quality of Governance. This study investigates the influence of both ICT diffusion and globalization in explaining the country level QoG while incorporating gross domestic

Today, social networks are the most popular and widely used applications among smartphone users all around the world. Three years ago, the Telegram messaging app was the most widely used social messaging app in Iran due to its technical features and user-friendliness. Despite its popularity, Telegram caused controversial debates among policymakers and public opinion. To discover the nature of these

Applications of clinical decision support systems (CDSS) have become essential for physicians seeking to make appropriate decisions. The implementation of CDSS, however, is complicated if the factors affecting physician’s acceptance are not recognised. This study aims to explore the various factors that may influence the acceptance of CDSS in Saudi Arabia. A qualitative method was used to collect data

The purpose of this study is to examine the information needs of Egyptian doormen/women, including their behaviour. An adapted form of snowball sampling of a heterogeneous demographic group of participants in the doormanship in Egypt was conducted. This sampling was used to select focus groups (n = 6) to explore a range of relevant issues. Demographically, Egyptian doormen/women appeared to be mostly

This paper reports the results of the study which analysed OPAC users’ searching behaviour through the use of search queries. The study analysed how OPAC search queries can be used to assess the effectiveness of the information literacy programme offered by the University of Dar es Salaam. Data were collected unobtrusively and stored in the OPAC web server’s log file. OPAC search logs were qualitatively

Research is vital for generating knowledge and methodology is a core component for the execution of research ideas. Research methodology education is considered to be a core area of the degree in LIS education programs of almost every school worldwide. The aim of the study is to explore the status of methodology education in the LIS field in Pakistan. In depth interviews were used to explore empirical

This qualitative study provides an understanding about undergraduate students’ information literacy experience during their involvement with distance learning in an Indonesian university. Findings present evidence to inform the development of the distance learning process in Indonesia and informed learning responses that enhance the learning of undergraduate students. A total of 17 undergraduate students

MHealth service is widely accepted as a good path towards healthcare promotion. However, patients’ low-level usage restricted its effectiveness. This work draws upon the elaboration likelihood model and mindfulness theory to investigate the mindfulness mechanism in mHealth service usage, which highlights: First, both perceived information quality and mindfulness positively affect mHealth service usage

Subjective wellbeing among mobile application users attracted researchers’ interest in recent years due to its prevalent role in enhancing everyday life, particularly during the recent coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). While previous work has primarily focused on users’ intention to adopt mobile apps for wellness and fitness (MAWF) purposes, scarce attention has been paid to the post-adoption impact

The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of the bibliotherapy technique on the development of general self-efficacy of women with disabled children. The specific objective of the study is to draw attention to bibliotherapy as a method in the library and information science area. The research was conducted with 18 volunteers from 80 mothers of disabled children who received service from ZİÇEV (Mentally

This issue opens with a paper from Indonesia. In ‘Examining multi-dimensional trust of technology in citizens’ adoption of e-voting in developing countries’, Yu-Qian Zhu of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Anik Hanifatul Azizah, of Telkom University, and Bo Hsiao, of Chang Jung Christian University, aim to build a more comprehensive understanding of trust in e-voting by validating

Deprived communities in India experience a range of health challenges as the result of a mixture of lack of access to information technologies, and difficulties in accessing health information and provision. This article reports on an intervention centred on the use of the social media platform, WhatsApp, in order to promote eye health communication. The case study based research was conducted in the

Institutional repositories are powerful tools to facilitate global access to intellectual output by members of the institution, particularly in assisting them to preserve and maximize access to their research output globally. This exploratory study of the status of institutional repositories implementation in African countries using the global Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and Transparent

In recent years, e-learning has become pivotal in higher education sectors. Researchers are correlating novel approaches with e-learning to facilitate education. However, despite the increase in e-learning research, there is still a lack of comprehensive literature analysis of e-learning in the higher education sector. Thus, this study aims to conduct a systematic literature review of the literature

The study scrutinized the behavioral adoption of informational e-government services among Chinese citizens in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. A structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was applied for the data analysis using Smart PLS 3.0 statistical software. The results show that information quality, information credibility, and ease of COVID-19 informational e-government services are significant

This experimental study used a checklist to evaluate the performance of seven search engines consisting of four Image General Search Engines (IGSEs) (namely, Google, Yahoo DuckDuckGo and Bing), and three Image Specialized Search Engines (ISSEs) (namely, Flicker, PicSearch, and GettyImages) in image retrieval. The findings indicated that the recall average of Image General Search Engines and Image Specialized

The objective of this study is to explore the impact of various cultural dimensions on the acceptance of E-commerce in the Palestinian context. The developed theoretical framework is a modified version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), wherein the trust, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use act as mediators for the intention to use E-commerce. As such, five cultural dimensions were

In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the electronic records management systems (ERMS) used in universities in the context of interoperability from a technical and organizational perspective. For this purpose, a survey was applied to the administrative staff of universities in Ankara, Turkey and 104 people participated in the survey. In the light of the data obtained, it was concluded that the records

This paper is to examine the role academic libraries can play to organize and make indigenous knowledge accessible for national development. The target audience for the paper are academic librarians in Ghana, researchers of African studies in Ghana and other stakeholders. This is a qualitative study with data from interviews with the librarians and a desk-top literature review. Academic librarians

This study aims to identify the determinants that influence the acceptance and usage of ICT among microfinance employees in the least-developed countries. It extended the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model with the inclusion of Innovativeness (IN) from the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory. The quantitative approach was adopted, with a survey questionnaire distributed

This study sought to explore the role academic libraries can play in connecting industries to research outputs emanating from universities and research institutions in Ghana. This study adopted the explanatory sequential mixed methods design. Purposive and disproportionate stratified sampling were used to select a sample size of 196, which included researchers, academic librarians and industrialists

Online health communities (OHC) provide a platform for users to exchange health-related information and seek emotional support. However, users often lack the intention to share their knowledge, which may lead to the failure of OHC. Drawing on the social influence theory, this research examined OHC users’ sharing behaviour. The results indicated that users’ sharing intention is influenced by three social

The aim of the study was to investigate secondary school students’ and teachers’ access to information technologies in Turkey by making interregional comparisons. Document analysis of the qualitative research methods was employed to analyze the reports issued by the Turkish Ministry of National Education, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), and the Programme for International Student Assessment

The purpose of this study is to investigate the contextual factors that facilitate informal workplace learning during the meeting process or after the meeting in the online context. This research utilized structural equation modeling technique and the target sample of this study was fulltime workers employed at various levels within a wide range of organizations. The results show that good meeting

The purpose of the paper was to highlight the digitization of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in institutional repositories in South Africa with a view to develop a framework for Web archiving IKS-related websites in South Africa. Anchored on the interpretivist paradigm, the qualitative research method was adopted for this research. The multiple case study research strategy was considered appropriate

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of Facebook use among university students in Jordanian universities, and its impact on collaborative learning. The study compares Facebook use between students of social sciences disciplines and students of sciences disciplines. The study used a quantitative research approach. The research instrument used is a questionnaire. The results of

The study investigated the use of webinar tools for teaching and learning by library and information professionals in Nigeria. The research objectives were to determine the level of ICT skills for webinar utilisation possessed by library and information professionals in Nigeria; ascertain the devices used for participating in webinars by Nigerian library and information professionals; ascertain the

The study was largely quantitative and employed the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) as its theoretical lens. The target population was 31,157 consisting of library staff and library patrons from four academic libraries in Ghana. Sampling tables and census sampling techniques were used to select a sample size of 767 respondents. Adopting a cross-sectional survey design, the

This study aimed to develop a cybersecurity scale to measure individuals’ practices and perceptions regarding cybersecurity. The study tested psychometric properties of the Cybersecurity Scale (CS-S) by employing a multi-stage research design. In the first study, an Exploratory-Factor-Analysis (EFA) was conducted to explore the underlying factor structure and evaluate internal consistency reliability

The impact of mobile money services in sub-Saharan Africa have been largely recognised. However, empirical studies are principally lacking on the factors influencing the decision to own a mobile phone (first hurdle), register with mobile money (second hurdle) and the intensity of use of mobile money services (third hurdle). This study examined the determinants of the mobile phone ownership, drivers

This study examines the causal relationship between the Internet and economic factors in Asian economies between 1997 and 2017. The economic factors consist of gross domestic product (GDP), foreign direct investment (FDI), imports, and exports. A comparative analysis of East, South, and Western Asia was conducted using a panel vector autoregressive model. The findings show bidirectional causality between

As a form of education, distance learning currently shows great promise and the role of online libraries in delivering off-campus information services increases. This paper presents a comparative analysis of measures undertaken by traditional academic libraries in China and Italy in response to pandemic restrictions on educational operations during the lockdown period. The study utilized a specially

This paper explores the impacts of Bangladesh’s Union Digital Centers (UDCs) as government information and service delivery hubs in rural areas. Drawing on user-surveys and semi-structured individual interviews it demonstrates that the UDCs have produced generally positive yet modest impacts on governance of service delivery. It shows that the UDCs are at an early stage of development, and that they

Counter-archives, including those aligned to universities, have grown and developed as alternatives to the conventional and traditional mainstream archives. The purpose of this paper is to look into how such counter-archives are building and using their holdings. The study is based on two purposively selected counter-archives, which are the Sinomlando Centre and Memory Work in Africa and South African

This study determines influential factors that account for mobile payment service adoption in a developing country and assesses the mediating effect of word of mouth on this platform. Our model combines multi-dimensions of trust and risk, and word of mouth to predict the target population’s use intention and use behavior. We use the structural equation modeling method to analyze the data collected

In South Africa, government departments are under legislative obligations to adopt a systematic and organised approach to the management of records. This is because sound records management is fundamental for good governance and effective and efficient administration of government units. This article analyses records management trends at Statistics South Africa (StatsSA). Qualitative desktop research

The benefits of the application of ICT tools in the education of high school learners have been well-established in various studies. As developments in technology have increased the reach of electronic information resources and enhanced learners’ access to educational information, it is imperative that these tools be available and accessible without any hindrances whatsoever to high school learners

We open this first issue of 2021 with a paper from Africa: ‘The impact of mobile phone use on farmers’ livelihoods in post-insurgency Northeast Nigeria’, by Chioma Anadozie, Mathias Fonkam, Jean-Paul Cleron and Muhammadou MO Kah of the American University of Nigeria. This study combines the strengths of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) and Systems Theory (ST), as a theoretical lens to understand

This study examined the use of smartphones as an academic tool amongst medical students from a developing country context. The study also aimed at identifying the perceived benefits and barriers to using smartphones in medical education. A cross sectional survey was administered to the students from nine medical institutes in Pakistan. A structured questionnaire was self-administered to 270 students

This paper investigates the challenges affecting knowledge sharing among lecturers using web 2.0 platforms to meet the requirements of the digital age of the 21st century. Knowledge sharing is an exchange of skills, ideas, experience, and understanding among people. The study is base on the digital divide theory, which focuses on discrepancies or inequality of access to the Internet and technological

This study aimed at assessing the status of library automation, the impact of automation on library services and challenges university library is facing in maintaining automated system towards effective library services delivery. The population in this study consists of 697 library personnel in 9 university libraries in Southwest Nigeria. A structured questionnaire Appendix A) was used for data collection

The study examined the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) skills on job performance among librarians in the university libraries in South-South, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey design using a self constructed questionnaire as instrument for data collection. The questionnaire was constructed after consulting other related literature in order to ensure that relevant

In the modern world, the amount of information stored in modern technology has been exponentially increasing. Access to vast amounts of information has changed how governments, institutions, organizations, and individuals conduct their business and record keeping. The increased use of cloud computing in conjunction with information and communication technologies (ICT), office automation, and digitalization

This paper explores the trends, patterns and determinants of research productivity at the Technical University of Kenya (TU-K). It analyses the research output of full-time academic staff collected from Google Scholar using Harzing’s “Publish or Perish” software. Further information was obtained from the top ten researchers based on productivity from the analysed research output. Additional information

Electronic resources (ERs) in academic libraries have become a global phenomenon due to technological developments, and these resources are changing the expectations of library users as well as the nature of the work of librarians. Although there is an extensive body of literature on the management and usage of ERs in academic institutions, few researchers have taken a holistic view by studying both

The future of journalism is being shaped by the convergence of technology and societal shifts. For indigenous language press in Africa battling to stay afloat amidst stiff competition from traditional media, the pervasive and rapidly encroaching digital transformation holds both opportunities and potential threats. Using a qualitative approach, this paper examined the implication of the shift to digital

Luo C, Shang J and Zhu Y (2020) Internet as a context: Exploring its impacts on scientific optimism in China. Information Development. Epub ahead of print 21 October 2020. DOI: 10.1177/0266666920965638.

The role of public/community libraries in promoting national development is undeniable. It is therefore not surprising that these libraries are being heralded as partners in e-government service delivery. The libraries however experience challenges in providing this important service, many of which emanate from poor funding. The paper presents findings of a study that was conducted in urban, semi-urban