Innovation in Digital Libraries: An Experimental Examination of the Production, Diffusion, and Use of STEM Teaching Materials

虽然数字科学图书馆越来越普遍，但对其影响的系统评估几乎是缺失的。这项研究是解决这一差距的一个开端。它正在调查获取基于网络基础设施的STEM教学材料是否比传统的基于纸张的生产和分发更广泛和有效地传播了资源。通过准实验设计和网络分析，该项目正在测试一系列由扩散和网络理论产生的假设，这些假设适用于STEM学科。例如用户网络是否同质，数字化材料是否增加了范围密度和使用速度，以及数字化是否导致更多地参与材料的生产。这项研究有可能推动理论和实践的见解，使课堂使用的科学资源在STEM领域的教师和学者网络中传播。研究表明，引入技术创新并不能保证新思想的传播，创新的传播是通过社会网络进行的，而社会网络的密度和社会网络成员的相对地位是社会网络传播的中介。美国社会学协会（ASA）正在为这项研究创建数字材料。ASA正在启动一个数字教学资源中心，将超过16,500页的教学模块从一个基于印刷的交付系统转移到一个基于网络的交互式数字科学图书馆。该项目的一个关键步骤是建立一个数据库，其中包含美国科学协会所有14000名成员及其人口统计、院系和机构特征，他们对纸质科学教材的使用情况，以及他们参与的用户网络（通过研究生院队列、论文委员会和合著者等联系来衡量）和非用户之间的联系。将在第二年建立一个增订的数据库，以便比较纸质资源材料和数字图书馆的用户和非用户及其网络的特点。此外，将评估在较密集或较不密集的网络中个人的采用率。作为一个会员制组织，ASA能够建立STEM教材用户和非用户的年度数据库。这个成员数据库是一个有界的协会成员网络，使网络分析更容易进行。这些数据的可用性提供了一套不引人注目的措施，将避免其他数据收集方法的许多成本和问题。这个项目的发现可能会为如何促进前沿科学发现进入课堂提供关键的见解。

Sociology (86)While digital science libraries are increasingly common, systematic assessment of their impact is nearly absent. This study is a beginning in addressing that gap. It is investigating whether access to cyber-infrastructure-based materials for teaching and learning in STEM results in more widespread and effective diffusion of resources than a traditional paper-based production and distribution. Using both a quasi-experimental design and network analysis, the project is testing a series of hypotheses that were generated from diffusion and network theory that are applicable across STEM disciplines. Examples are whether user networks are homophilious, whether digitizing materials increases the scope density and rate of usage, and whether digitizing results in greater participation in the production of materials. This research has the potential to advance theoretical and practical insights into the means by which scientific resources for classroom use are diffused throughout networks of teachers and scholars in STEM fields. Research shows that introducing technological innovation does not ensure the diffusion of new ideas and that the diffusion of innovation occurs through social networks mediated by their density and the relative status of their members. The American Sociological Association (ASA) is creating the digital materials for this study. ASA is launching a digital teaching resource center by moving more than 16,500 pages of teaching modules from a print-based delivery system into a web-based interactive digital science library. A key step of this project is the creation of a database of all 14,000 members of the ASA and their demographic, departmental, and institutional characteristics, their use of the paper-based science teaching materials, and the networks in which they participate (measured by the links such as graduate school cohorts, dissertation committees, and co-authors) among users, and the links among non-users. An updated database will be created in the second year in order to compare the characteristics of users and non-users, and their networks, of the paper resource materials and the digital library. In addition, the rate of adoption of individuals in denser or less dense networks will be assessed. As a membership organization ASA is able to establish a yearly database of both users and non-users of STEM teaching materials. This membership database is a bounded network of association members that makes network analysis easier to conduct. The availability of these data provides a set of unobtrusive measures that will avoid many of the costs and problems of other data collection methods. It is possible that the findings from this project will provide key insights about how to facilitate the movement of cutting-edge scientific findings into the classroom.