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Analyzes a national random telephone survey, carried out in October 1995, on the motivations for and barriers to Internet usage. Eight percent of the random sample reported being Internet users, while surprisingly another 8 percent reported being former users. In total, 85 percent of respondents reported having heard of the Internet. The survey showed evidence of a digital divide, Internet users being generally wealthier and more highly educated, and blacks and Hispanics disproportionately unaware of the Internet. Social and work networks appear to be important for stimulating interest in the Internet and providing users with support. As to reasons for using the Internet, socio‐personal development appears to be the key driver, while nonusers have a decidedly different set of beliefs about the Internet’s value. As to the barriers to Internet usage, even experienced users find it difficult to get started, which confirms other studies of this topic. Barriers include cost and difficulties in understanding how to use the Internet. Concludes that the results of the survey indicate that people strongly desire an easier‐to‐use Internet.

Analyses teen phone behaviour – regarding conversational skills among some boys with girls. Reveals some interesting household co‐ordination and parental supervision issues around the use of the telephone. Concludes that, as there is an advance in technology, more and more services will be used creatively to resolve conflict between social control and monitoring and individual identity.

Analyses five major innovations in the flour milling industry and the variations in attitudes and adoption practices in group mills and individual plants. Advocates that it is important for research purposes that an industry is chosen in which technical innovation was high, and also where the total number of units in the country could be approached with regard to the very limited budget available for the research. The industry chosen was the flour milling industry. Discusses the choice of innovations and methodology. Sums up that much work still needs to be done with regard to sources of information and on the role of opinion leaders.

Research into the library as place investigates the role of public library buildings as destinations, physical places where people go for various reasons ranging from making use of the library's resources and services or seeking to fulfill an information or reading need to less easily identified reasons that may include using the library's building as a place to make social or business contacts, to build or reinforce community or political ties, or to create or reinforce a personal identity. This study asks: How are one rural US public library system's newly constructed buildings functioning as places? The answer is derived from answers to sub-questions about adult library users, user, and staff perceptions of library use, and observed use of library facilities. The findings are contextualized using a framework built of theories from human geography, sociology, and information studies.

This case study replicates a mixed-methods case study conducted at the main public libraries in Toronto and Vancouver in the late1990s and first reproduced in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2006. It tests methods used in large urban settings in a rural, small-town environment. This study also expands on its antecedents by using thematic analysis to determine which conceptualizations of the role of the public library as place are most relevant to the community under investigation.

The study relies on quantitative and qualitative data collected via surveys and interviews of adult library users, interviews of library public service staff members, structured observations of people using the libraries, and analysis of selected administrative documents. The five sets of data are triangulated to answer the research sub-questions.

Thematic analysis grounded in the conceptual framework finds that public realm theory best contextualizes the relationships that develop between library staff members and adult library users over time. The study finds that the libraries serve their communities as informational places and as familiarized locales rather than as third places, and that the libraries facilitate the generation of social capital for their users.

Employee evaluation and monitoring have been common in America since colonial times. With industrialization, employers have implemented increasingly creative ways to monitor employees. For example, in the early part of this century, Ford Motor Company employed investigators to enter employees' homes to verify that employees were not overly drinking and that their homes were clean