University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Farmers' Reading Rooms and Information and Communications Technology in Rural Areas of Beijing

Tian, Rui

Content Files
62.1.tian.pdf

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/46104

Description

Title
Farmers' Reading Rooms and Information and Communications Technology in Rural Areas of Beijing
Author(s)
Tian, Rui
Issue Date
2013
Keyword(s)
  • Rural areas
  • China
  • Community informatics
Date of Ingest
2013-11-21T18:19:56Z
Abstract
The reading rooms in the rural areas of Beijing are among the oldest farmers’ reading rooms in China. By 2011, 3,974 farmers’ reading rooms had been established in rural areas of Beijing; there is now one farmers’ reading room in each village. This essay investigates the use of farmers’ reading rooms and information and communication technology (ICT) by villagers in eight villages of Fangshan District in Beijing from the perspective of community informatics. The study that forms the basis of this essay found that the “hollowing-out” of the rural population is one of the major reasons why the utilization rate of farmers’ reading rooms, computers, and the Internet is still low in the rural areas of Beijing. Thus, the author argues that although mobile Internet applications may narrow the urban-rural digital divide, it is necessary to accelerate the digitization upgrade of the farmers’ reading rooms in rural areas. The government should also develop appropriate related policies, give subsidies to reduce Internet access fees, and prioritize training farmers in the use of ICT.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
Article
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/46104
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2013.0030
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2013 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 62 (1) Summer 2013: Community Informatics in China PRIMARY
Library Trends 62 (1) Summer 2013: Community Informatics in China. Edited by Kate Williams