CONCEPTUAL RESEARCH AND REFLECTION PROJECT

CONCEPT: 7. “Netiquette”

“An overwhelming and many-facted aspect of using email and similar asynchronous communication systems over the Internet is 'Netiquette'. Netiquette describes 'good' and 'bad' conduct in online communication (amongst other forms of Internet use). But what is important about Netiquette is the concept that there are these 'agreed' rules of what is good and bad”. (Allen, n.d)

The term ‘netiquette’ is the etiquette of cyberspace according Shea (1994).  The reason why netiquette was introduced was to ensure when people are online they behave appropriately.  Communication online can be easily misinterpreted, that is why rules have been developed such as Shea’s ten core rules of netiquette. It is interesting to look at how these rules differ depending on the formality of the situation. Do the same rules apply to business emails compared to an email written to a friend or relative? 

As Weir (2009) states netiquette has a lot to do with tone.  Whether you are writing an email to your family or to your boss at work there are a number of netiquette rules that apply to both business and personal emails.  When writing emails it is vital not to forget that there is a person at the other end.  You should not write anything that you would not say to a person’s face but many people do.  People are rude, use bad language, and send sexually inappropriate emails.  I think that the most important part of netiquette whether you are sending a formal or informal email is remembering who you are sending the email to and making sure that it is respectful and not offensive.

I believe most of the same rules do apply to both business and personal emails. It is seen as bad netiquette to use CAPITALS in your sentence because it the same as shouting.  When forwarding an email do not change the original content and confidential messages should not be forwarded to others. Flaming should also be avoided.  Guo & Sanchez (1995) believes flaming is where an emotionally charged email is sent.  Emails can easily be misunderstood because the person receiving the email cannot see your non verbal communication such as facial expression and tone.  Flaming can determine the tone of the conversation and can cause arguments.

The person who you are sending the email to dictates the formality which you should use.  Jerz (2000) states “Always know the situation, and write accordingly”.   In the workplace, emails can formal or informal.  For example, if you are writing a formal memo to your boss abbreviations, emoticons and slang language should not be used.  Also, poor spelling and punctuation is seen as bad etiquette in the workplace.  According to Extejt (1998) business emails must be checked often, at least twice a day and should not be more than 25 lines long as recommended by many researchers. 

Personal emails are informal, it is acceptable to use abbreviations and emoticons as these set the tone of the email to be casual and a bit of fun. Spinks, Wells and Meche (1999) state that emoticons convey humour, they include symbols such as smileys.  There is no need to use a formal format for emailing family or friends however, it is still good etiquette to use good grammar and punctuation. 

My final reflection on netiquette is that most of the rules do apply whether you are sending an email to your boss at work or a close friend.  You should always read what you have written carefully and ensure the tone of the email is appropriate for who you are sending it to.

Word count: 535

Site 1- Writing Effective E-mail: Top 10 Tips
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/e-mail.htm

This article was originally written by Jessica Bauer and then revised and maintained by Dennis G. Jerz in 2000.   The article focuses on ten tips which assists people with writing professional emails and discusses email etiquette.  It is good for people who routinely send emails in a business situation and want to give the right information so the recipient responds quickly.  The main appeal of this article is that it written clearly with examples of good and bad email etiquette, it is concise and has commonsense rules.  Jerz is an Associate Professor of English at Seton Hill University, he  teaches new media journalism.  This site has good credibility as it is a University website, it regularly updated and peer reviewed.

Word count: 120

Site 2 – The Core Rules of Netiquette

http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

This website is very informative, it focuses on the 10 core rules of netiquette.  These rules have been taken from the book Netiquette written by Virginia Shea. It is written in very simple and easy to understand terms.  These rules are perfect for anyone new to the internet as it outlines acceptable behaviour for emails, discussion forums and chat rooms.  Even though this book was published in 1994 the content is still relevant.  Shea is a Princeton graduate and works in the IT industry.  This website has good credibility as it has been around since 1994 and many websites still refer and link to it.

Word count: 105

REFERENCES

Allen, M. (n.d.). The Concepts. Curtin University of Technology. Retrieved July 21 2009, from http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_18825_1&content_id=_985239_1.

Extejt, M. M. (1998). Teaching students to correspond effectively electronically: Tips for using electronic mail properly. Business Communication Quarterly, 61(2), 57-67.

Guo, K., & Sanchez, Y. (2005). Workplace Communication. Retrieved on July 20 2009, from http://healthadmin.jbpub.com/Borkowski/chapter4.pdf.

Jerz, D. (2000). Writing Effective E-mail: Top 10 Tips. Retrieved 22 July 2009, from http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/e-mail.htm.

Shea, V. (1994). The core rules of netiquette.  Retrieved on July 18 2009, from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html.

Spinks, N., Wells, B., & Meche, M. (1999). Netiquette: a behavioral guide to electronic business communication. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 4(3), 145-155.  Retrieved 25 July 2009, from Emerald database.

Weir, L. (2009). Behaveyourselfonline.com: Online Manners Matters. Retrieved on July 22 2009, from http://www.edutopia.org/Whats-next-2008-netiquette-guidelines.

 
CONCEPT: 17. “The impact of text based real time chat”

"You might think that, with the widespread availability of telephones, an internet-based system of real-time communication involving the typing of text messages would be hardly used, or at least, of little relevance. You would be wrong. Real-time internet-based text chat is a significant part of contemporary internet use".  (Allen, n.d)

There is a place for text based real time chat in the workplace, it seems that most businesses today work in teams so there is a need for synchronous communication.  It enables colleagues to talk with one another in real time no matter where they are located.  Attaran & Attaran (2002) believe that it has become more common practice for employees to meet and communicate by electronic meetings.  Popular Instant Messaging (IM) programs include AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger Service and ICQ (“I Seek You”).  This leads me to the next question how does the use of IM affect social relationships?

IM is often used as a substitute to having face to face conversations or talking on the telephone because it saves time, people can send a quick message and get an instant reply without having to engage in long conversations.  The other positives of using IM are that they are free to download, can be useful for having impromptu meetings and it reduces the cost of long distance phone calls.  Ohio State University (2008) believes that people that use IM in the workplace are getting interrupted less, and workers were using the technology to see when their colleagues were available to avoid disturbing them. 

Even though there are advantages of using IM what happens to having relationships or friendships with people?  IM may make employees feel isolated and when they are communicating with people they do not know there might be a lack of trust which could lead to miscommunication.  The other disadvantages of using IM in the workplace include the lack of physical and non-verbal signals that you get from face to face communication.  According to Schinder (2004) IM can cause a loss of productivity as the IM programs are designed for people to chat to one another which can be time consuming as typing takes longer than talking.  Other issues associated with IM include lack of security, IM spam (known as spim) and the lack of netiquette used.  Johnson & Cooper (2008) suggests that computer mediation such as IM compared with telephone communication reduces the chance of coming to an agreement in negotiations due to the lack of empathy, trustworthiness and positive communicated affect.  IM software such as Trillian can help solve this problem to a certain degree because it adds audio to the text. This can improve communication as it enables verbal cues which may lead to increased trustworthiness.

On reflection, I personally believe that IM has its advantages and disadvantages in the workplace.  It can be useful in the workplace if used appropriately.  However, I find it sad that we are losing contact with other human beings and not building relationships and friendships.  Communication can be easily misinterpreted when you are not talking over the telephone or face to face.  One way to overcome miscommunications when using IM is to establish trust and rapport, this can be achieved by communicating on the telephone or face to face first before using IM.

Word count: 499

Site 1- Instant Messaging: Does it have a place in business networks?

http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Instant-Messaging-Business-Networks.html

This article was written by Debra Schinder in 2004.  It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using instant messaging (IM) in the workplace.  The main appeal of this article is that it explains how IM technology works and provides best practice examples of what to include when developing a policy on IM use in the workplace.  Debra Schinder is a technology consultant, trainer and writer.  She has written the article is clear terms with good use of sub headings.  The article has good credibility as it has been peer reviewed receiving a rating of 4.1 out of 5 from 112 votes.

Word count: 101

Site 2-   Instant Messaging Proves Useful In Reducing Workplace Interruption

http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/06/080603120251.htm

This article reports on a study performed by Kelly Garrett which found that workers who used instant messaging in the workplace had fewer interruptions than their colleagues that did not use it.  This study challenges other research that has been done which suggests that instant messaging is disruptive and leads to reduced productivity.  Garrett explains how instant messaging is positive.  I found this article easy to read and understand.  Kelly Garrett is an Assistant Professor at the School of Communication at The Ohio State University.  The article was published by ScienceDaily which is a credible website it used by students and teachers and the articles are well cited and contain current information.

Word count: 113

REFERENCES

Allen, M. (n.d.).  Internet Communications Concept Document: 17, The impact of text-based real-time chat. Curtin University of Technology. Retrieved July 31 2009, from http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_18825_1%26url%3d

Attaran, M., & Attaran, S. (2002). Collaborative computing technology: the hot new managing tool.  Team Performance Journal, 8(1/2), 13-20. Retrieved July 30 2009, from Emerald database.

Johnson, N., & Cooper, R. (2008). Media, affect, concession, and agreement in negotiation: IM versus telephone. Elsevier, 673-684. Retrieved August 2 2009, from ABI-Inform Global Database.

Ohio State University (2008). Instant Messaging Proves Useful In Reducing Workplace Interruption. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 1 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603120251.htm.

Shinder, D. (2004). Instant Messaging: Does it have a place in business networks? Retrieved on July 30 2009, from http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Instant-Messaging-Business-Networks.html.

CONCEPT: 32. “Virtually a library?”

“A library is, fundamentally, a system organised according to shared, accepted sets of classifications and organisations, and on the basis that it is impossible to access the information except through categories (either in a catalogue or by browsing collocated books on a shelf). The World Wide Web has no such shared system, and is technologically capable of a large degree of searching for information directly – ‘full text searching’. What advanced users seek to do is to exploit the advantages of the idea of a library in a way that suits their personal needs, effectively creating personal virtual libraries.” (Allen, n.d)

In my opinion the internet is a virtual library.  Every time I want to know something I do not go to a physical library or pick up an encyclopedia, I ‘google’ it.  Lorenzo, Oblinger, Dzuiban (2006) suggest that students look at the internet first before considering going to a library.  With the technology that is available today, advanced internet users can easily access, share and organise information.  I would like to discuss further the differences between online social bookmarking sites and physical library databases.

I can always find what I am looking for when I go on the internet and if I find a particularly interesting website I will save it to my favourites or ‘bookmark’ it.  “Web browsers provide a means of indexing known as “bookmarks”. (Resnick & Turkle, 1998)  One of the tasks in Module 4 was to download tools that are useful for organising, analysing and sharing information on the web.  I searched a social bookmarking website called del.icio.us.  The obvious advantages of using such online social bookmarking websites are that they are easily accessed and free.  This website enables bookmarks to be saved online and they can be shared with other people.  It uses tags to make it easier to find your bookmark and allows you to access your saved bookmarks from any computer anywhere.  The other good feature about this website is that you can mark links as private so it’s not open to others.   As a student, del.icio.us enables you to search websites that people have bookmarked as being interesting.  Grosseck (2008) states that del.icio.us is an excellent system for archiving favourite information, following topics and resources from certain fields.  It also enables you to evaluate the saved bookmarks by looking at the number of people who have saved the website.

One of the disadvantages of using social bookmarking websites over going to a library is that you need to have a connection to the internet.  It can also be time consuming searching through tags, as there are no standard keywords and mistagging can occur due to misspelled words.  Cheong (2008) states that students spend more time navigating online rather than viewing and reading, and they struggle to develop effective search strategies.

The advantage of going to a library is that you can ask someone to help you find useful and reliable information.  You do not need to be an advanced internet user to get the information you require.  Cheong (2008) states that catalogs and other index systems in a library enable people to easily access information which allows the user to draw conclusions and act on them.  With today’s computer technology it still cannot match this comprehensive system of order and control that the library has.

Overall, I believe the library does still have a place in today’s technological society however, I personally still prefer to do my research on my computer and look at sites such as del.icio.us or google scholar.  I find it easier to do my research in the privacy of my own home and the only time that I can do this research is late at night (when libraries are closed).   Obviously the catalog system in a library is far superior to any online search engine but the advanced internet user can negotiate their way around the web to find suitable information they need.

Word count: 555

Site 1- How Choice, Co-Creation, and Culture Are Changing What It Means to Be Net Savvy

http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/HowChoiceCoCreationandCultureA/157434.

This article describes how we interact with the web and how it has become a part of our culture.  It has statistics on student’s perceptions of libraries and information resources and explains how students have not changed, technology has changed in the way information is created, used and disseminated.  This article was clearly written with good use of sub headings.  It was written by George Lorenzo who is a writer and editor of Educational Pathways and author of Educause reports, Diana Oblinger is the CEO and president of Educause and Adjunct Professor of Adult and Higher Education at North Carolina State University and Charles Dziuban who teaches at the University of Central Florida and has a Ph.D, giving thid article credibility.  

Word Count: 120

Site 2- Using Del.icio.us in education

http://www.scribd.com/doc/212002/Using-delicious-In-Education

This article describes social bookmarking websites in particular del.icio.us and how it is used by students and teachers.  It is a good article for people who have not had any experience with social bookmarking sites and it also explores the advantages and disadvantages of del.icio.us.  Grosseck details how del.icio.us can support teaching and learning through the use of tags from lectures and how comments and notes can be made about websites.  The author Gabriela Grosseck is a teacher in Romania at West University of Timisoara.  This article is published on the website Scribd which enables comments from readers and shows how many times the article has been read which makes this site a credible source of information.

 Word Count: 117

REFERENCES

 
Allen, M. (n.d.).  Internet Communications Concept Document: 32, “Virtually a Library?”. Curtin University of Technology. Retrieved July 31 2009, from http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_18825_1%26url%3d.

Cheong, C. F. (2008). Librarianship: What is it about now? Retrieved August 3 2009, from http://www.las.org.sg/pa_cf.pdf.

Grosseck, G. (1998). Using Del.icio.us in education. Retrieved August 4 2009, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/212002/Using-delicious-In-Education.

Lorenzo, G., Oblinger, D., & Dzuiban, C. (2006). How choice, co-creation, and culture are changing what it means to be net savvy.  Retrieved 2 August 2009, from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/HowChoiceCoCreationandCultureA/157434.

Resnick, M., & Turkle, S. (1998). Web Bookmarks as Objects-to-Think-With. Retrieved August 1 2009, from http://www.subjectverb.com/www/writing/web-bookmarks.html.

CONCEPT: 14. “Cyberspace is informationally created 'space'”

“The sense of space is essential for humans - or at least many humans - to be able to express their identities in special and rich ways.” (Allen, n.d)

Web 2.0 technologies have enabled the development and evolution of social networking sites such as facebook, myspace, twitter and other applications like blogging and wikis.  The question “What are the privacy concerns with using social networking sites such as facebook?” fits in with this concept as it looks at sharing information with friends or strangers. 

Social networking sites like Facebook is a type of virtual community, it enables communication between friends, colleagues, classmates and strangers.  According to facebook (2009) there are over 250 million active users, these users have created profiles and share personal information.  According to Westlake (2008) Facebook is predominately used by Generation Y’s, however as a Generation Xer myself I use Facebook and have many friends who are also Generation X and even have some Baby Boomers as friends.  My personal experience with Facebook has been a positive one even though I was a bit skeptical before joining.  It is up to you what you want to get out of Facebook and how much information you want to share.    I have found it quite rewarding as I have reconnected with old school friends who I have not seen or spoken to in over ten years.  I look at Facebook a couple of times a week and enjoy posting photos of my kids, but must admit I did not give the privacy issue much thought.

The privacy concerns associated with Facebook and other social networking sites depend on the level of information you provide.  These concerns include identity theft, and physical stalking.  Dwyer, Passerini & Hiltz (2007) state that compared to other social networking sites, Facebook members reveal their real name, email address and date of birth.  To have your Facebook account validated you must provide a legitimate email address, and information such as the user’s birth date, location and phone number are also often disclosed.  Most users also publish a real photo of themselves.  Researchers suggest that users reveal this personal information to gain trust.  All of this personal information makes users at high risk of identity theft and stalking. (Gross & Acquisiti, 2005)

Facebook does have privacy settings where you can only make your profile available to people who you confirm as friends, however people are not aware of the more advanced privacy options available and put their trust in Facebook’s default settings.  Gross & Acquisiti (2005) state that prior research suggests that users tend not to change default settings.  Users are not afraid to post personal private information on Facebook and do not think of the implications. 

My final reflection on Facebook is that I will continue to use Facebook but will look at my privacy settings in more detail and only allow limited personal information to be accessed.  I do not think enough users are aware of the privacy implications and should be alerted about them.

Word Count: 472

Site 1 - Friend Me if You Facebook: Generation Y and Performative Surveillance

http://muse.jhu.edu.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/journals/the_drama_review/v052/52.4.westlake.pdf

This article gives good background information on Facebook and focuses on Generation Y’s and their use of the internet.  It explains how Generation Y’s choose social cohesion over privacy challenges.  The article is easy to read and the author uses screenshots well.  I found it interesting how the author wrote about Facebook from a personal experience.  The author E.J Westlake is the Assistant Professor of theatre studies at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and has a Ph.D.  The article was retrieved from Project Muse, a respected online source of scholarly journals.

Word Count: 91

Site 2 – Information Revelation and Privacy in Online Social Networks (Facebook)

http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~acquisti/papers/privacy-facebook-gross-acquisti.pdf

This article was written by Ralph Gross and Alessandro Acquisiti in 2005.  Both authors teach at Carnegie Mellon University and hold Ph.D’s.  The authors explain how social networking has evolved and in particular it focuses on Facebook.  It describes the privacy issues associated with social networking sites and evaluates how much personal information students are disclosing.  The authors concluded that Facebook users are unconcerned with the privacy risks and privacy preferences are hardly used which makes users vulnerable to physical and cyber risks.  This article was very informative and credible source of information.

Word Count: 93


REFERENCES

Allen, M. (n.d.).  Internet Communications Concept Document: 14, Cyberspace is informationally created ‘space’. Curtin University of Technology. Retrieved on July 31 2009, from http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_18825_1%26url%3d.

Dwyer, C., Passerini, K., & Hiltz, S. (2007). Trust and privacy concern within social networking sites: A comparison between Facebook and MySpace. Retrieved on August 3 2009, from http://csis.pace.edu/~dwyer/research/DwyerAMCIS2007.pdf.

Facebook. (2009). Press Room. Retrieved on August 4 2009, from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics.

Gross, R., & Acquisti, A. (2005). Information Revelation and Privacy in Online Social Networks (Facebook). Retrieved on August 3 2009, from http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~acquisti/papers/privacy-facebook-gross-acquisti.pdf.

Westlake, E.J. (2008). Friend Me if You Facebook: Generation Y and Performative Surveillance. TDR: The Drama Review, 52(4), 21-40. Retrieved on August 2 2009, from Project MUSE.  

• Surfers Paradise Resorts This is the official website for the Gold Coast Tourist Information Centre.  It enables you to search for accommodation, things to do, activities etc.  This is a sponsered link.
  
• Gold Coast Accommodation  This the WOTIF website that enables you to book last minute deals for accommodation in Surfers Paradise.  This is a sponsered link.
  
• Surfers Accommodation  This is a website where you can search and book accommodation in Surfers Paradise.  This is a sponsered link.
  
• Local business results for accommodation near Surfers Paradise Queensland This link provides more websites and a map of accommodation in and near Surfers Paradise.
•  Up to 70% off Surfers Paradise Accommodation & Hotels at Wotif.com  This website takes you straight to last minute deals on accommodation in Surfers Paradise.

2. Using copernicus or similar, set it up to search at least three search engines (including one that will search the 'deep web') and repeat exactly the same search.  Record the number of hits in your learning log. (Allen et al, n.d.)

I used Copernic Agent Basic to search for the same subject "surfers paradise accommodation".  I enabled 12 different search engines for the search and the results were 52 hits.  I was unable to complete a 'deep web' search as Copernic Agent Basic does not allow this, you have to purchase the personal or professional version.

The first five hits were:

• Surfers Paradise Accommodation. This is the official website for the Gold Coast Tourist Information Centre.  It enables you to search for accommodation, things to do, activities etc. This is a sponsered link. http://www.goldcoastinformation.com.au
• 3 nights $285 Surfers.  This is a hotel in Surfers Paradise.  This is a sponsered link. http://thorntontower.com.au/
• Crowne Plaza.  This is a hotel in Surfers Paradise.  This is a sponsered link. http://www.crowneplaza.com/
• Family Resort in Surfers. This is a hotel in Surfers Paradise.  This is a sponsered link. http://www.paradiseresort.com.au/
• Surfers Paradise Accommodation. This is a website which allows you to search and book accommodation, activities etc.  http://www.surfersparadise.i4u.com.au

• Adobe Reader
  
• Flash player
  
• Shockwave player
  
• Apple Quicktime player
  
• Windows media player
  
• Real networks real one

Copernic Meta for PC.

Bookmark Buddy for Windows

This program organises your favourite websites, keeps your login details no matter what browser you are using.   This program is free to download to trial for one month and then if you like it, it costs US $29.95.  It fairly easy to use, I was able to import my existing bookmarks from my servers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer.  This program organises your favourites into categories and subcategories so it is easier to find your bookmarks.  It also remembers usernames and passwords, it encrypts the passwords to ensure they are secure. It also enables you to add notes to a bookmark.

I personally would not pay for this program as I find Firefox already has all of these features that I use, I only have about 20 bookmarks which are in alphabetic order and this suits my needs.  I would say this program would be more suited to people who do a lot of web surfing and need to bookmark thousands of websites.  It would also enable internet researchers and web developers bookmark websites from many different servers.  Below is a screenshot of what the Bookmarks Buddy program looks like.

This is a search engine which is saved on your computer. It is unlike other search engines because it searches multiple search engines at once, it combines their results and removes duplicates.  The advantage of this program is that the results are larger, more detailed and it is faster.  It also allows searches to be saved.  This is a free program, however this is only the basic program there are another two versions that you have to pay for which offer more detailed features such as summarizing results and tracking changes in web pages contents.  I personally would not pay for this program, but  would find the free version to be useful for more specific searches and selecting which search engines you want to use.  The only disadvantage of this program is the number of advertisements that appear at the top of the search. Below is a screenshot of what Copernic Agent Basic looks like.




References

Good communication practice on the Internet is not something one 'learns', but something one 'practices' so as to teach others, less familiar than yourself, how it is done. (Allen, n.d)

Communicating in real-time with text enables a form of 'authoring of the self' that is similar to the processes of face-to-face speech but which is much more amenable to authorial control, experimentation and reflection. Further, text-based communication carries with it the possibility for multiple, differing conversations occurring simultaneously, relying on the ability of the human brain to deal with text much better than speech. (Allen,n.d)

The sense of space is essential for humans - or at least many humans - to be able to express their identities in special and rich ways. (Allen, n.d)

A library is, fundamentally, a system organised according to shared, accepted sets of classifications and organisations, and on the basis that it is impossible to access the information except through categories (either in a catalogue or by browsing collocated books on a shelf). The World Wide Web has no such shared system, and is technologically capable of a large degree of searching for information directly – ‘full text searching’. What advanced users seek to do is to exploit the advantages of the idea of a library in a way that suits their personal needs, effectively creating personal virtual libraries. (Allen, n.d)