THE LIBRARY QUARTERLYthat the avail

THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY
that the availability of choice brings about different behavioral patterns
[30–32]. Therefore, alternative service accessibility would seem to be an
important environmental factor that can explain the use of a community
network. In summary, discussions above have been recapitulated in the
following three research questions of this study: (1) Do demographic factors
remain strong predictors of use when tested along with psychological
and environment factors? (2) What are the predictors of use in each subgroup
separated by their accessibility to an alternative Internet service?
Are the predictors of use the same in both groups or are they different?
(3) Is there any difference between users with and without alternative
service accessibility in their demographics, psychological characteristics,
and use?
To answer the above research questions, this study examined four demographic
variables: gender, age, education, and income. The study chose four
psychological variables that were considered to be relevant to the use of
community ICTs. Three psychological variables were adopted from Icek
Ajzen’s [30, 33–34] theory of planned behavior, which is a theoretical
model that has been widely applied to various social behaviors, including
media use and information technology use. The theory predicts behaviors
with three psychological constructs: attitude (i.e., attitude toward using the
service), subjective norms (i.e., perceived social pressure to use the service),
and perceived behavioral control (i.e., perceived capability to use the
service).
In relation to the behavior studied here, it is contended that people
would use (or not use) the community network service when they (1) have
positive (or negative) attitudes toward using the service, (2) are influenced
by others’ encouragement (or discouragement) of using the service, or
(3) feel (or lack) confidence in using information technology [35]. Sense
of community was selected as a fourth psychological construct. As a community
ICT, community networks might be used by those who have a strong
attachment to their communities and by those who like to have a sense of
membership in their communities [17–18, 24].
Hypotheses
Research question 1 relates to the influence of demographic variables on
community network use. The question was investigated by testing the following
four hypotheses:
H1. There is a significant relationship between gender and use when
all other research variables are controlled for.
H2. There is a significant relationship between age and use when
all other research variables are controlled for.