While the future development of library-partnered community networks
is dependent upon the efforts focused on effective advocacy and partnerships
for broadband access for all, the LIS research community can also
help better shape the practice in several ways. An important area of research
would be the evaluation of service effectiveness. The evaluation
efforts, including community needs assessment, can be viewed as central
to sustainability and further development of a community network. Schuler
supports the need for evaluation and its ability to better define the community
network that meets community needs, thereby creating a solid
foundation for funding requests and community outreach [5]. Based on
the findings of the current study, researchers could further investigate thefollowing questions: Why did over half of the community network users
retain their memberships when they were using a second ISP? What, then,
would be the factors causing alternative service users to remain continuing
members? The finding that attitude was a strong predictor of use among
this segment of the user group suggests a further investigation of the factors
that contribute to favorable attitudes. Among many possible factors, it may
be the unique service values that the users expect from their community
network use. People might perceive the community network not just as
another ISP but as a place where they could obtain valuable community
information when they are in particular information need situations or
information-seeking contexts. This supposition should be tested in future
studies.