Seeking knowledge: An exploratory study of the role of social networks in the adoption of Ebooks by historians

✍ Scribed by Anabel Quan-Haase; Kim Martin

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 198 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-7870
• DOI: 10.1002/meet.2011.14504801128

✦ Synopsis

Despite their initial slow diffusion in society, Ebooks have recently garnered renewed interest from academics as part of a move toward the digital humanities. To examine how humanists are adopting Ebooks, we focus on the first stage, the Knowledge Phase, of Rogers' model of the diffusion of innovations. Central to this stage is the study of adopter attitudes toward the innovation and the role played by social networks in the adoption process. Historians were selected as the population of study because of their close relationship to the printed book, both as a research tool and as an academic goal. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with historians and then analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Our preliminary results show that historians had both positive and negative attitudes towards the Ebook. Often the same person showed eagerness and curiosity to adopt certain features of Ebooks whilst showing some degree of reluctance and skepticism. We identified the Role of the Social Network (RSN) as an important factor in the decision-making process of historians. Respondents frequently mentioned the subject specialist librarian for history as a key source of information. In addition, historians went not only to peers inside of the department, but also to friends and colleagues elsewhere when seeking advice on working with Ebooks. As Ebooks gain ground within academia, studies such as this, that focus on a single discipline, will be necessary to understand why scholars make the decision to adopt or reject. The study results found that subject librarians can act as change agents on the university campus. For this reason, the impact they have on the use of new technologies by academics needs further attention.