Thursday, April 05, 2012

Undergraduate information behaviour: 2 new articles

Latest issue of Information Research (volume 17 no. 1), the open access journal,includes:
A study of the information search behaviour of the millennial generation by Arthur Taylor. "The longitudinal study discussed here examined the information behaviour of undergraduate college students who were members of the millennial generation. Data were collected from the students using surveys throughout an information search process as part of an assigned research project. [...] Statistically significant findings suggest that millennial generation Web searchers proceed erratically through an information search process, make only a limited attempt to evaluate the quality or validity of information gathered, and may perform some level of 'backfilling' or adding sources to a research project before final submission of the work."
Information resource selection of undergraduate students in academic search tasks by Jee Yeon Lee, Woojin Paik and Soohyung Joo. "A self-generated diary method was employed with 233 undergraduate students in achieving their academic search tasks. [...] This study reaffirmed recent information usage trends that online sources are preferred by university students in their academic searches. This study identified twenty nine factors in four different dimensions, including information type, resource feature, search strategy, and interaction with others. Moreover, perceptions of users were investigated quantitatively focusing on usefulness, credibility, accessibility, familiarity with source, satisfaction, and intention of continuous use."
Go to http://informationr.net/ir/17-1/infres171.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield Botanic Gardens, March 2012.

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