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Objective - This paper presents the results from a survey of administrators and instructors at public libraries across Canada investigating the delivery of digital literacy training led by public libraries. The goal of the survey was to capture a snapshot of the Canadian public library-led digital literacy training landscape and to explore differences in perceptions of training activities between public library administrators and instructors. Methods - An online survey was distributed to administrators and instructors at public libraries across Canada with the help of two national public library associations. The survey instrument was developed based on a theoretical framework from the research team's prior case study investigations of community-led digital literacy training. The survey included closed-and openended questions concerning the availability of adequate/sustained funding, the adequacy of dedicated classroom resources, the competency of teaching staff, the helpfulness of support staff, the amount and frequency of knowledge sharing of best practices, the amount of rigorous and regular performance measurement, the scheduling of the training provided, the skills taught, the pedagogical approaches used, and the marketing carried out. Responses were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques. Results - Public library administrators and instructors in Canada are generally satisfied with the delivery of digital literacy training; however, room for improvement exists. Instructors are more positive about the delivery of this training than administrators. Findings support and extend the research team's conceptual model, specifically in terms of providing more insight and clarity on how the learning environment and program components affect the delivery of digital literacy training led by public libraries. Results highlight how training is situated in context and how libraries need to fine-tune the delivery of this training in ways that are reflective of libraries' learning environments and program components. Conclusion - Results are of high interest to researchers and library practitioners who wish to leverage evidence-based library and information practice to understand and address the factors affecting the successful delivery of public library-led digital literacy training. Though funding is always an obstacle for any public service organization, libraries can make improvements to the delivery of their training in other ways, such as carrying out more robust performance measurement and using results more transparently, participating in more knowledge-sharing opportunities, and better understanding learner needs and preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how public libraries and other local community organizations can best deliver and evaluate the digital literacy initiatives they provide to the communities they serve; this article focuses on program evaluation. Interviews with 14 administrators of digital literacy programs revealed that administrators espouse idealistic intentions for digital literacy programs, particularly to give marginalized people increased educational and vocational opportunities. These administrators are also confident in the success of these programs, despite little formal assessment of outcomes for learners. Success is measured by numbers of program participants and anecdotal evidence of positive outcomes for learners, such as increased confidence or an intention to move forward with career goals. This limited approach to measuring the success of digital literacy programs reveals significant opportunity to more fully and systematically evaluate the outcomes of these programs and to assess whether program goals are being met and ongoing investment of resources is merited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first of two articles, interviews with administrators of digital literacy programs in Canadian public libraries and other community organizations revealed a sector working to address the digital divide, focusing on marginalized people. Programs narrowly defined digital literacy as skillful use of a range of basic and more advanced technologies. Funding from corporate or other external sources and community interest are key to establishing programs. Challenges arise from lack of resources, including staff time, and limited staff expertise, as well as competition for learners' time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the merit of conducting a qualitative analysis of LibQUAL+® survey comments as a means of leveraging quantitative LibQUAL+ results, and using importance-satisfaction matrices to present and assess qualitative findings. Comments collected from the authors' institution's LibQUAL+ survey were analyzed using a codebook based on theoretical insights of customer satisfaction with library features. Qualitative findings extended the quantitative results and yielded key recommendations that were new or unclear from the quantitative results alone. Importance-satisfaction matrices were beneficial in pinpointing primary and secondary opportunities for improvement, areas to place continued emphasis, and areas where expectations were exceeded.

This study investigates the merits of employing active learning strategies in the delivery of information literacy instruction (ILI). Traditional approaches to the teaching of information literacy skills--where students are passive recipients of the information they receive--are challenged. Rather, methods that encourage students to actively engage themselves in the learning process are posited to yield heightened student learning outcomes. To test this assumption, a survey was administered to 372 undergraduate students who experienced both passive and active learning ILI opportunities. Results indicate that passive instruction is not an effective style of teaching in yielding positive student psychological, behavioural or benefit outcomes. Rather active instruction yields more positive effects. Importantly, the amount of active ILI received does not matter; a single active learning instructional session may be sufficient to yield significant and sustaining student learning outcomes. This is particularly good news for ILI practitioners working in resource-constrained higher educational environments. (Contains 8 tables and 1 figure.)

To address competitive threats, academic libraries are encouraged to build robust Web sites personalized to learning and research tasks. Through an evaluation of Association of Research Libraries (ARL)-member Web sites, we suggest how library Web sites should evolve and reflect upon the impacts such recommendations may have on academic libraries themselves.

Examined instructors' satisfaction with and use of intelligent agent toolkits in the classroom. Found that no single uniform toolkit satisfied the needs of instructors. Moreover, satisfaction levels were influenced primarily by user interactions with the toolkit, followed to a lesser extent by toolkit performance and functionality. (EV)

Discusses the role of intelligent agents in facilitating the seeking and retrieval of information in Web-based library environments. Highlights include an overview of agents; current applications in library domains; an agent-based model for libraries; the design of interface agents; and implications for library policy and digital collections. (Author/LRW)

Explores the influence of an organization's information ecology, or internal information environment, on a firm's electronic commerce initiatives and plans. Reports results from a case study investigation on the adoption and use of an e-commerce initiative, a corporate portal, by participants at a large Canadian company. (Author/LRW)

This paper develops a contingency model to examine whether the impact of costs and benefits (derived from social exchange theory) are contingent upon factors related to the social context, such as norms and generalized trust (derived from social capital theory) in virtual communities. In general, the results suggest that costs negatively affected one's intention to share knowledge, whereas benefits positively affect one's intention to share knowledge. Particularly, while the effort of knowledge sharing has a direct effect on one's intention to share knowledge, the effect of loss of knowledge power is contingent upon pro-sharing norms. While two intrinsic benefits (enjoyment in helping others and social affiliation) have direct effects on one's intention to share knowledge, the impact of the extrinsic benefit (i.e., online status seeking) is contingent upon prosharing norms. Generalized trust has also the potential to moderate the impact of online status seeking on one's intention to share knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]