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Guardian ad Litem (GAL) programs represent one example of new hybrid models of governmental organizations in which citizen volunteers participate with staff in delivering services. Information and communication technologies (ICT) also increasingly play a role in distributing e-government information to citizens. This study used a web-based survey to examine adoption of and intent to use ICT among citizen volunteers, staff and other stakeholders within Florida's GAL program. Constructs based on Davis' Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [10] were tested in analyzing survey results, and found to provide a solid foundation for evaluating stakeholder use of online technologies.

This study explored the effect of public library activities on reading achievement of 1st grade students, using the ECLS-K (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten). The results from Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) indicate that children's reading Item Response Theory (IRT) scores were significantly related to whether their parents had a library card and visited the public library with them. In addition, the reading IRT scores of 1st grade students who had their own library cards were significantly higher than those of non-library card holding students. The location of the public library also played an important role in the number of times parents and their children visited it. Students who visited the public library also had significantly higher reading IRT score than students who did not visit the public library. These findings suggest that accessibility and utilization of public libraries contribute to the growth of reading abilities of 1st grade students.