Goshen Public Library & Historical Society | 203 Main St Goshen, NY 10924 | Phone: 845.294.6606 | Fax: 845.294.7158 | RCLS Member
« News from Colorado | Home | Upcoming vote »
Youth, the Internet and libraries
By plnkh | April 17, 2008
Catching up on my professional reading, I’ve come across 2 articles of note about under-25s and Internet resources in Library Hotline. The first article (1/14/08) summarizes an Idaho report “Perceptions of Idaho’s Digital Natives in Libraries” (for the full report visit libraries.idaho.gov/files/default/2007-digital-native-rpt.pdf ). Research on the habits of Idaho’s under 25 population (those raised with the Internet as a fact of life) indicates that these young people believe “that a library, like a bookstore, should be a place to hang out with their friends, but they also perceive the library as a place for serious work, quiet and books. And though they typically begin an information search on the Internet, they believe information obtained through books and libraries is much more trustworthy than information found online.” The goal of the study was to determine how best to reach young patrons, and it would appear that the findings indicate libraries - at least in Idaho - are not dead, and have a secondary role as the community gathering place (the primary role remaining a place for books, quiet study and research.
The second article is (1/28/09) “Google Generation Youth are Poor Researchers: BL Reports” which summarizes a British study information Behaviours of the Researcher of the Future (www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/01/googlegen.aspx) This study concludes that young people are no more informationally literate now than they were before the Internet. Speedy web searches reveal little time devoted to evaluating resources for “relevance, accuracy or authority”. Most teachers and librarians can tell you that “young people typically have a poor understanding of their information needs, and therefore, find it difficult to develop effective search strategies.” They tend to use unverified information found through search engines, rather than library databases (the reference collection on-line). Librarians and teachers have major roles in educating students about effective searching and evaluating resources whether those resources are printed or digital.
Topics: General |
