Page 83 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

082 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.10, 2018

other, and are often used to provide spiritual support and help to others, such as those between family
members, relatives, friends and colleagues. Weak ties are defined as connections between nodes in
heterogeneous communities. These nodes can provide new information and instrumental support to each
other, such as a node outside a community but connected to a node in the community, and the owner or
the clerk of a township computer repair shop outside the village in this study.
The case data used in this paper were collected from the field study (H.Yan, 2017) conducted by
the author in six provinces and cities. According to the representativeness and integrity of these
data, one hundred and sixty-four one-to-one in-depth interview samples were selected, including
nineteen villagers in Anhui, thirty-five villagers in Tianjin, thirty-four citizens and villagers in
Chongqing, sixteen citizens and villagers in Hunan, twelve citizens and villagers in Guizhou,
and forty-eight villagers in Gansu. Content analysis method was used to extract relevant text
representation fragments through text encoding technique and to accurately measure the digital
tools, digital services, digital psychology, digital ability, digital efforts, digital social support,
digital social norms, and digital impacts of the above case samples. In addition, text fragments
about respondents’ actively seeking to get rid of digital poverty were extracted from the interview
text, and types of social networks and themes of help in digitalization were encoded. The encoding
framework and the measurement method are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Text encoding framework and quantitative criteria.
No. Variables Range Quantitative criteria
Desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and health Desktops and laptops≤40 points; mobile phones
1 Digital tools
conditions influencing digitalization ≤40 points; health conditions≤20 points
Home network≤80 points; phone network≤20
2 Digital services Home network and phone network
points
Digital Attitude, interests, preferences, confidence,
3 Negative≤50 points; positive≥50 points
psychology emotions, willingness, and feeling
Richness of specific skills, richness of
4 Digital ability Richness≤60 points; proficiency≤40 points
virtual activities, and proficiency
How much time and energy are spent? What are
5 Digital efforts Time≤60 points; energy+habits≤40 points
the habits?
Digital social Relatives’ and friends’ ownership and use of Ownership and use of ICT≤70 points;
6
support ICT, and possibilities to offer their help possibilities≤30 points
The initial score is 50 points, 10 points are
Judge implied social conventions from the
Digital social deducted for a norm that does harm to individuals,
7 aspects of age, gender, region, time, and
norms and 10 points are awarded for a norm that is good
symbolic nature
for individuals
60 points are awarded for the first mentioned
Examples that ICT has a real impact on
8 Digital impacts valuable activity, and 10 points are awarded for
personal and professional life
every activity increase
Family members, relatives, friends, and
9 Strong ties Not quantified
colleagues
Servicemen of ICT repair shops, and people
10 Weak ties who are outside the village or community and Not quantified
are not in regular touch