Where are the digital natives?

Sometimes it's useful to look at the way our former students and library users behave after they move out of the children's room and high school. A recent study of university students in Illinois shows that many of them have very little idea of how to search for information and a very limited view of how librarians can help them. Of course, we'd like to think the students who participated in this study were the ones who never bothered to visit the library during their elementary and high school years, but we know that most of the university-bound students do use the library. Why don't they understand more about what goes on there? According to this study most of them are still dependent on Google as their source of information, but they don't know how to do a good search of Google, much less use other databases and search engines. Have youth librarians been spending too much time demonstrating print information sources? Have we relied too much on giving out lists of resources and not helping them to ask questions about their search topic? Many teachers are unfamiliar with the sources, especially online sources, that are now available and they often don't guide students in asking the right questions. And the children, for all their glib familiarity with digital tools, are not the digital natives we've been told about. Just because they can text messages faster than the eye can see doesn't mean they can find what they need to know. We should respect their familiarity with the tools, but also respect our own knowledge of how to find information and what information is worth finding. Take a look at the Illinois study and then think about how you can ensure that the students in your library today won't be as clueless as the ones in the report.

What are they searching for?

Librarians have known for a long time that most kids have a hard time finding specific online information. Skill in gaming and using social networks doesn't easily transfer to searching Google. Now the company itself has recognized the problems young children have in searching and is starting to conduct research to make its product easier to use. Choosing a search term that will lead to the correct bit of information can be tricky, as research by librarians over the past 15 years has shown. Many schools have developed training programs to help students learn how to search. It's good to see that the search engine companies themselves now recognize the problems and are looking at user needs. Making the Internet easier for children to search will make it easier for all of us. As so often happens--unsung librarians led the way to new knowledge.