Page 169 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

168 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol. 7, 2015

program. So, sometimes I consulted these kinds of information from teachers in local school because they
can surf the Internet and get access to information there. In addition, I sometimes phoned the Farmers
Service Station of town government and got help from the professional support.
This study is supported by a public information service program operated by a NGO (Evergreen
Education Foundation, EEF) and the Foundation has implemented a free information technology
training program for three years in the area where the present study is conducted. The purpose of
the program is to improve the ability of local residents and local schools serve as the base of the
training program. EEF provides computers for local schools for free but asks local schools to open
their computer classrooms for local farmers without any charge. Thus, the school involved in this
research has already been constructed as social designed information spaces. Through the interview,
we found that the social designed information space has been utilized as very important information
sources for local residents. Obviously, the more the social designed information space is utilized,
the more valuable information local residents can get. Thus, they may get advantaged position
in the information divide. This advantaged position reveals the relationship between information
richness of people and the physical existing of information sources surrounding them. Our findings
are consistent with the findings of digital divide and digital inequality related researches.
We also found that, through an objective construction process, information agents tend to bring
information sources into their information horizon and make their information world wealthy.
Through interviews, we found that the richness of information for interviewees are varied in terms
of broadness of the information agents constructed. For example:
Interviewer Z1 (male, high school educational background, a taxi driver): for we taxi drivers, some guys
are well-informed. For example, those ones living in the town have broad passenger sources because they
get acquainted with various people in the department stores, restaurants and traffic stations.
According to this interviewee, in their daily work time, some taxi drivers tended to construct
various information spaces. Thus, their information source horizon became broader. In this
example, we found that compared to the drivers living in countryside, those drivers living in
the town are more likely to construct department stores, restaurant and traffic stations as their
information space to gain information. Obviously, the broader the information agent constructed,
the richer information they may get. Below is a typical example for an individual who expand his
information source horizon through constructing his information space:
Researcher: you mentioned that you only have a junior school educational background, but I think your
scope of knowledge is broader than your education level.
Interviewer L (male, junior school level educational background, who is applying for a plant program
from government): Oh, really? Maybe because I am an migrant worker and I used to work in different
places all the year around. I know many people from different places and they work on different businesses.
Most of my ideas are from the conversations with them. Actually, it is not necessary to ask questions to
them, and they themselves are migrant worker and may not answer my questions professionally. I merely
talked with them and got many inspirations. When I saved enough money, I visited the exhibition and found
this program.
In this case, we realized that the interviewee’s knowledge scope and amount of his information