Appendix B. Annotated Bibliography of Major Works Related to the Implications of IT for the Home

Criteria for Annotation Methodology Keywords Annotated Bibliography

Written works used to construct the bibliographic database related to the impacts of IT in the home were collected in four ways:

• Keyword search. A number of databases were searched using a series of keywords to identify works related to IT in the home. The search process was iterative and was repeated with varying keywords until most results were works appropriate to the topic. The author names that appeared most frequently were then subjected to further searches for additional relevant works. The resulting works were then subjected to a series of computer searches and analyst review to verify relevance. Works of borderline significance were retained.



• Networking. Known experts in the field were queried by e-mail and asked to suggest works they considered particularly important to the topic.



• Ad hoc discovery. Relevant works were discovered during Web searches, from reviews of bibliographies of other works, and from voluntary submissions.



• Bibliography research. Nearly 50 bibliographies contained in relevant works were examined. Those bibliographies either confirmed relevant works already on the list or identified additional works to include.

Criteria for Annotation 

There were two criteria for inclusion as a major work. The primary criterion was the level (or unit) of analysis of the study. Works to be annotated had to focus on family-, home-, or household-level effects of IT; studies focusing on individual effects were also included if the context of the research was generally home computing or personal Internet use. Excluded is research that relates to the impacts of home IT activities on business or society. For example, the substantial literature on the impacts of telecommuting on business productivity, job satisfaction, employee turnover, and so forth was not included.

The philosophical literature on the impact of home IT activities on culture, psychological perceptions of time and space, democratic participation, social cohesion or anomie, etc., was similarly excluded.

The second criterion for annotation was that they had to be either published or available on the Web from a credible source. Only 30 works were identified that met these two key criteria. Each annotation describes: (1) the purpose of the work, (2) the methodology and source of data (if it is an empirical study), and (3) key findings or features of the work.

Methodology 

The annotated works included in the database were identified primarily by database searches and an expert networking process conducted by SRI International. These searches located approximately 180 works related to the implications of IT for the home; these resources were overwhelmingly published articles, books, and conference proceedings. A few self-published Web reports were also identified. There are known limitations to this type of literature search methodology; for example, book chapters in edited volumes are not always indexed, and there are time lags in the indexing processing (works published in one year may not be listed for 12 months). Thus, the original set of 180 works reflects indexing as of December 1998.

The original list was reduced to roughly 100 based on a close reading of their titles and abstracts for relevance to the project. These 100 works were then read carefully and included or excluded depending on whether they met the criteria identified above. In addition, the bibliographies and reference lists of literature deemed relevant to the scope of work were scanned to identify other potentially relevant publications. Several works to be annotated were subsequently identified in this way.

A second source of relevant literature was the Bibliography of Information Technology: An Annotated Critical Bibliography of English Language Sources Since 1980 (Whitaker et al. 1989, chapter 8, "Household & Community References"). Finally, a few works were "opportunistic" discoveries: for example, other chapters found in edited volumes or other papers found in conference proceedings.

Keywords 

The annotated works also contain highly simplified keyword designations. These keywords reflect basic differentiations in the subjects of the works and are not based on Library of Congress subject heading classifications. A list of keywords used and a brief description of their meaning are presented in Table B-1.

Go to: Table of Contents    Suggested Citation, Acknowledgments    Executive Summary    Preface    Background    State of Knowledge and Inquiry    IT in the Home: a Framework for Analysis    Sociodemographics of Access and Adoption    Patterns of IT Use    Research on Impacts    Conclusion: Knowledge and Inquiry Gaps    References    Appendix A. Data Resources on IT in the Home    Appendix B. Annotated Bibliography of Major Works    Appendix C. Major Works Organized by Key Words

National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies
The Application and Implications of Information Technologies in the Home:
Where are the Data and What Do They Say?
Arlington, VA (NSF 01-313) [March 2001]