Challenges in the Digital Environment: Assessing Students’ Attitudes about Information Searching.
Type of Presentation
Individual paper/presentation (20 minute presentation)
Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Room 1002
Proposal
Do students believe they can access electronic information effectively? Does their confidence grow over time as they progress in their studies? The focus of this presentation is to discuss students’ attitudes concerning accessing and utilizing library resources online. Two hundred eleven students from two southern universities in the United States were recently surveyed to explore students’ self-reported knowledge, confidence and abilities concerning the information search process. This research data is a subset of a larger scale study which examined students’ attitudes towards the library and the information search process using the Undergraduate Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale. In addition, their attitudes concerning the library and the libraries’ staff are also discussed.
Findings indicate a surprising number of students are less confident than expected, considering that millennials have grown up with technology and are assumed to be comfortable online. Many students indicated that they did not feel as confident online with basic research skills, such as locating e-books and locating full-text articles, as well as with technical competencies such as downloading articles to an e-reader. Gender differences were also examined, as well as class standing. The similarity in results from the two institutions suggests this data may have broader implications for academic libraries nationwide.
Short Description
Do students believe they can access electronic information effectively? Does their confidence grow over time as they progress in their studies? The focus of this presentation is to report findings from a research study, which reveals students’ interesting and surprising attitudes about accessing and utilizing library resources online.
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Van Kampen-Breit, Doris and Cooke, Rachel, "Challenges in the Digital Environment: Assessing Students’ Attitudes about Information Searching." (2015). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 59.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2015/2015/59
Challenges in the Digital Environment: Assessing Students’ Attitudes about Information Searching.
Room 1002
Do students believe they can access electronic information effectively? Does their confidence grow over time as they progress in their studies? The focus of this presentation is to discuss students’ attitudes concerning accessing and utilizing library resources online. Two hundred eleven students from two southern universities in the United States were recently surveyed to explore students’ self-reported knowledge, confidence and abilities concerning the information search process. This research data is a subset of a larger scale study which examined students’ attitudes towards the library and the information search process using the Undergraduate Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale. In addition, their attitudes concerning the library and the libraries’ staff are also discussed.
Findings indicate a surprising number of students are less confident than expected, considering that millennials have grown up with technology and are assumed to be comfortable online. Many students indicated that they did not feel as confident online with basic research skills, such as locating e-books and locating full-text articles, as well as with technical competencies such as downloading articles to an e-reader. Gender differences were also examined, as well as class standing. The similarity in results from the two institutions suggests this data may have broader implications for academic libraries nationwide.
