Information Services and Digital Literacy

6

The ‘new’ user

Abstract:

The chapter discusses the evolution of the ideas of ‘new’ users and how the change of users, their habits and expectations delimit their territories of knowing. The assumptions of generational differences, changes in how we read and seek information, use and non-use of services, changing identities, and the idea of the emergence of a ‘new’ user are partly imaginary but at the same time influential forces that change our behaviour. There is no doubt that the practices of seeking and using information, and knowing have changed and are different from the past. At the same time, the change converges with the continuity of old habits and their absorption into the new technological and cultural environment. Like technology, ...