The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released The Demographics of Social Media Users—2012.

Here's an excerpt:

A late 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project shows that young adults are more likely than others to use major social media. At the same time, other groups are interested in different sites and services.

Internet users under 50 are particularly likely to use a social networking site of any kind, and those 18-29 are the most likely of any demographic cohort to do so (83%). Women are more likely than men to be on these sites. Those living in urban settings are also significantly more likely than rural internet users to use social networking.

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The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee has released presentations from the State of the Net conference.

Here's a description of the conference:

Attracting over 600 attendees annually, the State of the Net Conference provides unparalleled opportunities to network and engage on key policy issues. The State of the Net Conference is the largest information technology policy conference in the U.S. and the only one with over 50 percent Congressional staff and government policymakers in attendance. The State of the Net Conference is the only tech policy conference routinely recognized for its balanced blend of academics, consumer groups, industry and government.

Here's an example presentation: First Sale and No Resale: Could SCOTUS and the Internet Redefine Content Ownership? .

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The American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy has released a draft of U.S. Public Libraries and BTOP. BTOP stands for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

Here's an excerpt:

Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded just over $4 billion to 233 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) projects. . . .

This pre-publication report from the American Library Association presents state-level library projects underway across the country, and provides a broad (but not yet comprehensive) look at the library improvements and community impacts that are resulting from BTOP funding.

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The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released How Teens Do Research in the Digital World.

Here's an excerpt:

• Virtually all (99%) AP and NWP teachers in this study agree with the notion that "the internet enables students to access a wider range of resources than would otherwise be available," and 65% agree that "the internet makes today's students more self-sufficient researchers."
• At the same time, 76% of teachers surveyed "strongly agree" with the assertion that internet search engines have conditioned students to expect to be able to find information quickly and easily.
• Large majorities also agree with the notion that the amount of information available online today is overwhelming to most students (83%) and that today's digital technologies discourage students from using a wide range of sources when conducting research (71%).
• Fewer teachers, but still a majority of this sample (60%), agree with the assertion that today's technologies make it harder for students to find credible sources of information.

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The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Younger Americans' Reading and Library Habits.

Here's an excerpt:

Among the main findings:

• 83% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 read a book in the past year. Some 75% read a print book, 19% read an e-book, and 11% listened to an audiobook.
• Among Americans who read e-books, those under age 30 are more likely to read their e-books on a cell phone (41%) or computer (55%) than on an e-book reader such as a Kindle (23%) or tablet (16%).
• Overall, 47% of younger Americans read long-form e-content such as books, magazines or newspapers. E-content readers under age 30 are more likely than older e-content readers to say that they are reading more these days due to the availability of e-content (40% vs. 28%).

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ARL has released "Issue Brief: Massive Open Online Courses: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries."

Here's an excerpt:

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) raise significant legal and policy questions for research libraries, which are often asked to support the development of MOOC courses. These questions involve information policy concerns that are central to research libraries, including the proper application of fair use, the transition to open access as the default mode of scholarly publishing, and the provision of equal access to learning materials for students with and without disabilities. Where possible, research libraries should engage in conversations around MOOCs and promote their core values. By doing so, they will also promote the continuing vitality of libraries as partners in the educational mission.

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Project Information Literacy has released Learning Curve: How College Graduates Solve Information Problems Once They Join the Workplace.

Here's an excerpt:

Most graduates in our focus groups said they found it difficult to solve information problems in the workplace, where unlike college, a sense of urgency pervaded and where personal contacts often reaped more useful results than online searches. Graduates said they leveraged essential information competencies from college for extracting content and also developed adaptive information-seeking strategies for reaching out to trusted colleagues in order to compensate for what they lacked. At the same time, employers said they recruited graduates, in part, for their online searching skills but still expected and needed more traditional research competencies, such as thumbing through bound reports, picking up the telephone, and interpreting research results with team members. They found that their college hires rarely demonstrated these competencies. Overall, our findings suggest there is a distinct difference between today's graduates who demonstrated how quickly they found answers online and seasoned employers who needed college hires to use a combination of online and traditional methods to conduct comprehensive research.

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EDUCAUSE has released the ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2012.

Here's an excerpt:

Findings and recommendations reflect four general themes:

• Blended-learning environments are the norm; students say that these environments best support how they learn.
• Students want to access academic progress information and course material via their mobile devices, and institutions deliver.
• Technology training and skill development for students is more important than new, more, or "better" technology.
• Students use social networks for interacting with friends more than for academic communication.

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The Online Publishers Association has released "A Portrait of Today's Smartphone User."

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The OPA collaborated with Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc. to conduct the study, which found that the population of smartphone users is growing rapidly. An estimated 44% of the U.S. internet population, ages 8-64, owns a smartphone (107 million consumers*), up from 31% in 2011 (73 million consumers*) and expected to reach 57% by Q2 2013 (142 million consumers*). Aside from making phone calls, 93% of smartphone users regularly access content and information above any other activity, followed by accessing the internet (59%) and checking email (58%). The primary types of content smartphone consumers access are weather information (47%), video (31%), local news (29%) and national news (24%).

The FCC has released the Eighth Broadband Progress Report.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement :

Notwithstanding this progress, the Report finds that approximately 19 million Americans—6 percent of the population—still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds. In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population—14.5 million people—lack access to this service. In tribal areas, nearly one-third of the population lacks access. Even in areas where broadband is available, approximately 100 million Americans still do not subscribe. The report concludes that until the Commission's Connect America reforms are fully implemented, these gaps are unlikely to close. Because millions still lack access to or have not adopted broadband, the Report concludes broadband is not yet being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion.

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The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released The Rise of the "Connected Viewer".

Here's an excerpt:

Television's solitary screen is being supplemented by multi-screen interactivity. Half of all adult cell owners (52%) have used their phones recently for engagement, diversion, or interaction with other people while watching TV. The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project measured the prevalence of these multi-screen viewing experiences by asking the 88% of American adults who are cell owners whether they had used their phone to engage in several different activities while watching television in the 30 days preceding an April 2012 survey.

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The Online Publishers Association has released A Portrait of Today's Tablet User.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Key findings from "A Portrait of Today's Tablet User" include:

• Today's tablet users represent 12% of the US internet population ages 8-64; that number is projected to grow to 23% by early 2012—a group that represents an estimated 54 million people
• 87% of tablet users are accessing content and information, the dominant activity for this device
• 93% of tablet users have downloaded apps; the average tablet user has downloaded 20 apps

See also the OPA's recent A Portrait of Today's Tablet User Wave II study.

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