Digital information access in urban/suburban communities: A survey report of public digital library use by the residents in Connecticut

Purpose ' The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of public digital services on urban/suburban residents, to uncover the current usage of public digital services and levels of satisfaction with the digital resources/content in urban digital libraries (networked computers with specific information infrastructure designed free for public use).Design/methodology/approach ' A qualitative approach is used as a main stream in the research framework as the method of inquiry. Qualitative one-to-one interviews include surveying users who use public library websites, observing the users, consulting librarians about the users, and interviewing the users.Findings ' Provides demographic patterns of the patrons' interaction with the digital services public libraries provide, and the satisfaction and compliances the residents have regarding information access through the digital technology in urban/suburban Connecticut.Practical implications ' Because of the small number of participants, this study has limitations in being generalized to an understanding of overall patterns of urban residents using digital resources in public settings in the USA or elsewhere, however, it could be a good pilot study for a nation-wide survey with the methods tested.Originality/value ' This study helps fulfill the scant empirical attention given to the impact accessto public digital information or use of digital library services on the urban/suburban residents, offers new data that help public library administrators enhance the impact, efficiency and value of the public digital library services to improve the digital learning environments for life-long education at all levels in a broad community of urban/suburban users.