Page 78 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 42

YAN Hui & LIU Jiqun / ICT acceptance behavior of rural digital poverty communities: 077
Field reports from China’s six provinces and municipalities

transmission model integrates individuals’ perception, self-attribution and objective physical
poverty in digital inequality, and provides a deeper and all-round-way whole framework for
digital poverty attribution research. Secondly, the model imports technology acceptance behavior
theory into digital poverty, offer more effective and operational analyzing method for technical
origins of digital poverty, and enriches the digital inequality theories. Thirdly, the model proposes
three stages of technology acceptance, and thus expands the traditional definition of technology
acceptance behavior. It can fit better with cognitive process and behavior laws of new technology
acceptance by rural digital individuals. One main mission of digital poverty research is to seek
for feasible solutions for digital poverty alleviation in contexts of various communities. By our
research findings, it is easier to offer solutions on physical poverty alleviation; while it is also
significant to discover the underneath perception of modern digital devices and change their
screwy sense of ICT, for the purpose of preventing the digital poor communities from being deep
in digital poverty.
For information professionals, especially public librarians, it would be necessary to reflect on
how to break through the traditional policies and solutions of infrastructure and skill training,
and how to provide personalized and targeted digital poverty alleviation schemes for different
residents. It is strongly needed by digitally poor communities to improve their social contexts, to
recognize and distinguish their access, continuous using and expectations of ICT, to promote their
loyalty to public digital services.
Limitations of our research are stated as below: the model is proposed on the basis of qualitative
method and grounded theory, and needs to be supported by larger scale of quantitative research. It
is still questionable that whether or not the model misses other key variables. Moreover, we need
to integrate the self-attribution of digital poverty and technology acceptance.

Acknowledgements

The field studies are funded by National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science
(Support Number: 11CTQ009). The field study in Tianzhu County of Gansu Province was strongly
supported by Ms. Zhang Yu, the President of China branch, Evergreen Education Foundation
(EEF), and volunteer teams she organized in Tianzhu First Senior High School, other schools
and in rural areas. Dr. Zhou Wenjie, an Associate Professor in Business School of Northwest
Normal University, and Dr. Han Shenglong, an Associate Professor in Department of Information
Management of Peking University took part in in-depth interview data collection. Dr. Zhou
offered great assistance in transcriptions of audio records. Mr. Wang Ming of Tianjin Foreign
Studies University Library assisted us with the field study in Jinghai County of Tianjin, and helped
finish transcriptions. Wang Youran, the master student of Kings’ College London and Humboldt-
Universität zu Berlin assisted in field study in Dongzhi County of Anhui Province. Ms. Hong
Pinzhang and Ms. He Xiaofeng who graduated from Nankai University collected field data from