Research Finding:
Students from elementary school to university
find the use of electronic resources challenging.
Comment
Students exhibit unique and individual search patterns.
They find browsing easy on the Web and this is the
central activity for searching in this medium. The
use of bookmarks is important to their success, however,
throughout the research process.
Students are highly dependent on the interplay between
their specific problem and their own individual characteristics
and knowledge. Provision of context to support their
inquiry is critical to the process.
Students are hindered by their limited reading skills,
with limited ability to critically assess information.
Students use a wider variety of sources for "imposed
queries" [determined by someone other than the
student] than they do for self-generated questions
and these sources for the most part are provided by
the teacher.
The World Wide Web, when used in conjunction with
other computer programs and as part of a planned instructional
program, can enhance student problem-solving abilities.
The situation does not change for university students:
choosing an appropriate topic is very difficult yet
extremely important to their success; managing time
is difficult; the online catalogue is important to
the search but other useful electronic resources are
not used frequently; resources most used are familiar,
convenient and easy; students have not been taught
a structured approach to the research process; university
librarians are consulted infrequently and less for
research advice than technical assistance in the use
of resources
Sources
Gross, Melissa Rasmussen. (1998). Imposed queries
in the school library media center: A descriptive
study. Ph.D. dissertation. University of California,
Los Angeles. 229 pp.
Hambrick, Patricia June. (1997). An investigation
of World Wide Web use on problem-solving ability
of fifth-grade students. Ed.D. dissertation.
United States International University. 180 pp.
Kuntz, Lucy. (1999). Online resources and the information
seeking process. Ph.D. dissertation. University
of California, Berkeley. 179 pp.
Wolcott, Mark S. (1997). Information seeking and
the World Wide Web: A qualitative study of seventh-grade
students search behavior during an inquiry activity. Ed.D.
dissertation. University of San Francisco. 194 pp.
