Material mastery: Situation digital library use in university research practices

To explore the influence of digital libraries on knowledge work, a study investigated the use of paper and electronic materials by academic researchers in 4 disciplines at 8 US research universities. This study found that at a given point in time, the match between material mastery and features of using a particular digital library could explain its use. This paper discusses findings about digital library use, work characteristics and how material mastery explains patterns of digital library use.