UI Current LIS Clips: Digital Native or Digital Immigrant

March 2006 - Compiled and annotated by Marianne Steadley

http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/clips/2006_03_print.html

In this issue:

Exploring Ways to Bridge the Generational Divide in the Library

1. Understanding the Millennials
2. Information Seeking Behavior of Gen Y Students
3. Generation Y and the Academic Library
4. Net Generation and Libraries
5. Reinventing Library Buildings and Services for Millennials
6. Generation Z- the Newest Generation
7. Additional resources

In Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584-2069, authors William Strauss
and Neil Howe, identify and name American generations starting with the Puritan in
1584, through others such as the Awakening, Progressive, Silent, GI, and Boomers, to
the current Millennial generation. Millennials, also known as Generation Y, the Net
Generation, the Digital Generation, the Echo Boom generation were born during the
period of about 1980 – 2001 and are in our schools, universities, and recently have
entered adulthood. And while only the youngest of this Millennial generation, sometimes
known as Generation Z, have been surrounded by digital technology from infancy, the
others have grown up and have extensive experience with the web and other
technologies. These “digital natives” often pose a challenge to librarians, many of whom
are Boomers or Generation X and are “digital immigrants.”

The first two articles highlighted in this issue address how Millennials go through the
research and information seeking processes in, and more importantly, out of the physical
library. The next four articles deliver suggestions on ways libraries can meet the
information needs of this networked, interactive, multi-media oriented culture. While
these articles discuss serving students in academic libraries, they are also applicable to
school, special and public libraries working with this generation of tech savvy, mobile,
multitasking individuals.--the Editors

1. Understanding the Millennials

Holliday, Wendy and Qin Li. “Understanding the Millennials: Updating our Knowledge
about Students.” Reference Services Review, v.32, no.4 (2004): 346-366.

Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (ISP) model, developed in 1991, describes six
stages that students go through in the research process: (1) initiation; (2) topic selection;
(3) pre-focus exploration; (4) focus formulation; (5) information collection; and (6)
search closure/presentation. At each stage, individuals encounter different feelings,
usually starting with uncertainly and anxiety changing to greater confidence, relief and
satisfaction.

In 2003 Holliday and Li conducted a study to determine whether the ISP model held up
for a new generation of students, the Millennials, who have extensive experience with the
web and technology. The study questioned whether the students’ thoughts, feelings, and
actions during the research process changed because of their experience with the web.
The study also sought to determine the impact of a new research environment with easy
access to seemingly limitless information resources.

While the findings are still preliminary, the study suggests that easy access to information
via the web has changed students’ models of the information environment and
expectations of the research process.

• Millennials expect research to be easy and feel they can be independent in the process.
  They do not seek help from librarians and only occasionally from professors or peers.
  When they can’t find what they need, they give up and assume that the information
  cannot be found. This leads to a new feeling of frustration in the ISP model.
• Some students skip steps in the process, especially focus formulation. Students often stop
  after their initial searches thinking they have completed the research process and fail to
  choose a particular focus.
• Access to full text articles seems to have changed students’ cognitive behavior. Instead of
  having to read through material at the library, they can now download material at their
  desks. They do not have to take notes or read through them to develop themes and ideas,
  an activity central to a focused research project. Electronic articles enable cutting and
  pasting, possibly leading to increased plagiarism.

The study concludes that the ISP remains a useful prescriptive model to help guide
students through the research process. The model might become even more important in
information literacy instruction by providing scaffolding that gets students to look
beyond their first hits of a Google search.

2. Information Seeking Behavior of Gen Y Students

Weller, Angela. “Information Seeking Behavior in Generation Y Students: Motivation,
Critical Thinking, and Learning Theory.” Journal of Academic Librarianship v. 31, no.
1 (January 2005): 46-53.

Weller explores research in information-seeking behavior, motivation, critical thinking,
and learning theory to search for possible motivating factors for Gen Y’s reliance, not on
books, but on television and the Internet for their information needs. The author considers
a focus group study conducted by the University of Idaho Library that examined “general
information seeking” behavior of undergraduate students rather than highly specific areas
of study or resources.

The study showed that:

• Students often cited human beings as sources of information. They preferred to
  discuss information needs with a real person rather than find out what they needed
  on their own.
• The highest criteria on the students’ list of needs when seeking information were
  ease of use, reliability, accuracy, currency, availability, and cost. Of secondary
  importance were trust, quality, credibility, validity, completeness, and
  comprehensiveness.
• The most cited obstacles to obtaining information were “infoglut” and
  questionable validity.
• In rating information-seeking experiences, how much time was spent looking for
  information was of primary importance, and students often accepted inappropriate
  information or lower quality information if it took less time.

Conclusions:

• Issues of time and levels of difficulty in obtaining information are usually of more
  concern to students than issues of accuracy.
• Generation Y students are primarily visual learners, a style which is often in
  conflict with the habits of many instructors.
• Hands-on activities should be directly related to a specific task that the student
  perceives as necessary.
• Students are concerned about saving time, so pointing out the timesaving aspects
  of using the library’s web site or of good searching techniques may help reach
  students.

3. Generation Y and Academic Libraries

Gardner, Susan and Susanna Eng. "What Students Want: Generation Y and the Changing
Function of the Academic Library." portal: Libraries and the Academy v.5, no.3 (2005):
405-420.

Librarians at the Thomas and Dorothy Seavey Library at the University of Southern
California conducted a survey of Generation Y students to evaluate the impact of four
characteristics ascribed to this generation on library services. Generation Y students:

• Have great expectations.
• Expect customization.
• Are technology veterans.
• Utilize new communications.

Generation Y students demand quality academic facilities and high academic
achievement of themselves. The survey found that the top three reasons to visit the
library were all related to academic achievement: (1) study alone; (2) use a computer
for class work; and (3) study with a group.

Generations Y students expect services will be available 24/7 in a variety of modes. They
prefer doing research online and expect customization of technology and research to
support their needs. They don’t see the Internet and technology as tools but as integral
parts of their lives. Research is done with an ATM attitude – fast and easy. Assignments
are often group based and Generation Y students use a variety of communication tools to
support group learning.

Implication for library services

• Gen Y students look to their peers for help more than authority figures suggesting
  a tiered approach to reference with well-trained student workers backed up by
  reference librarians.
• Higher education has shifted its curriculum toward more collaboration and group
  projects generating a need for interactive group space as well as for enclosed
  single user rooms in the library.
• Many students perceive their learning as mobile and use the library remotely so
  libraries need an infrastructure to support remote usage of their resources,
  including email and chat reference service. Libraries can also provide mobile
  services by implementing a program to bring “roving” librarians to spaces they
  are not usually found, such as the student union building.
• Research now involves technology, so a combined reference desk and technology
  service point in one area offers opportunities to bring students closer to the
  reference desk and librarians.
• Wireless networks will enable student laptops to access library tools from
  anywhere on campus.
• Students expect one-stop shopping when it comes to research, which can be
  partially addressed through the use of library portals or single interfaces providing
  access to library catalogs, online reference material, e-journals and teaching
  materials.

4. Net Generation and Libraries

Lippincott, Joan R. “Net Generation Students and Libraries.” Educating the Net
Generation. Eds. Diane Oblinger and James l. Oblinger, Boulder, CO: Educause, 2005.
http://www.educause.edu/EducatingtheNetGeneration/5989

Libraries can remain a vital part of campus life if they are designed with a real
understanding of the needs of Net Gen students. Unfortunately, there are some major
disconnects between students and many of today’s academic libraries. Students often turn
to Google or another search engine because they find library-sponsored resources too
difficult to figure out on their own, and they are seldom exposed to or interested in formal
instruction in information literacy. Another disconnect is that library services and digital
resources are presented in the library organization context rather than in a user-centered
mode, such as within a course management system (CMS). Libraries can improve
access and services by paying attention to the style of Net Gen Students.

Successful Net Gen access services will:

• Integrate library information into Google Scholar or other popular search engines
  so that information from peer-reviewed publications can be accessed easily.
• Integrate more multimedia resources into their searchable content and
  incorporate “open” web resources into their catalogs.
• Include subject pathfinders in the CMS to bring information to the place where
  students will be actively engaged in academic work.
• Offer simplified and graphic ways for students to approach discipline searches.

Successful Net Gen information services will:

• Use students on teams that design new services for both the virtual and physical
  environments. Making use of the skills and perspectives of Net Gen students will
  help to ensure that new services will be responsive to their needs and styles.
• Represent services and instruction visually and in multimedia modes. Interactive
  Web sites that offer visual representations will appeal to Net Gen students.
• Integrate information literacy instruction into the curriculum and information
  services into the CMS.
• Explore services for mobile devices such as cell phones.
• Emphasize information policy issues such as intellectual property and privacy.

Successful Net Gen environments will

• Provide individual and group learning spaces in the library equipped with
  computing resources where academic work can be carried out in a social context.
• Promote community by providing comfortable spaces for informal gatherings.
• Offer joint support to users from both the library and IT units.
• Integrate physical spaces and services with virtual spaces and services.
• Effectively market to all groups of users bearing in mind Net Gen’s visual style.
  

5. Reinventing Library Buildings and Services for Millennials

Sweeney, Richard T. “Reinventing Library Buildings and Services for the Millennial
Generation.” Library Administration and Management v.19, no. 4 (2005): 165-75.

Millennials are the second largest generation in U.S history, second only to the Baby
Boomers and far larger than Generation X, which directly preceded them. Millennials
have such vastly different needs and expectations than Boomers, that librarians are being
forced to rethink and redesign library services to remain relevant. While technology,
librarian expectations, library buildings and traditional library services are important in
shaping the library, it is the Millennials (user) expectations and demands that will
determine what will flourish and what will flounder.

Millennial expectations, behaviors, values, and characteristics reflect a networked,
interactive, multimedia oriented culture, which should be considered by library planners.

LIBRARY LESSON: As consumers in the library, Millennials expect to choose
from many alternatives and have the ability to customize and personalize.
Libraries need to have a wide selection of choices if they are to appeal to the
varied interests of Millennials.

The Millennial generation values education and training, expects more balance between
work and personal lives, and believes in merit-based systems. They expect to be
rewarded for their work and don’t have much sympathy for decisions that are based on
seniority. Millennials in the workforce will be more challenging to train than Boomers or
Gen Xers.

LIBRARY LESSON: Librarians will need to show Millennials how library work
can be flexible, innovative, and intellectually compelling, and that they will learn
important skills they can use in a number of jobs.

Millennials have also been raised on immediate gratification and expect instant access
with immediate feedback. They want as many services as possible to be available online
anytime they choose.

LIBRARY LESSON: Successful library hours and service availability must be
based on Millennial needs, not the convenience of the library staff. Services such
as access to remote online journals, databases, e-books, and reference assistance
will need to be provided.

About a fifth of this generation is the offspring of immigrants who arrived in the U.S.
during the 1980’s. Millennials are a diverse group, more tolerant than previous
generations.

LIBRARY LESSON: Librarians will need to market libraries to those who speak
foreign languages, who have different cultural interests, and who have not
traditionally used the library.

Millennials are digital natives, born into an era in which digitally produced resources and
services are common. For them, digital networked services are preferred as the
information service delivery mechanism and more important than the physical library.
Many librarians and library administrators are digital immigrants who learned to use
digital services later in life.

LIBRARY LESSON: Librarians must merge all library services digitally to meet
the information and communication expectations of the Millennial generation.
Physical and virtual libraries must be inseparable.

Millennials are heavy technology users, with much experience in gaming and
communications using every available electronic device or channel.

LIBRARY LESSON: Librarians and vendors will need to build gaming
characteristics into their systems to be successful with Millennials.

Millennials expect their technology to be mobile and to have access anywhere and
anytime. They expect technology to offer one stop shopping for all their technology and
information needs. Today most library catalogs can’t be searched from a mobile device.

LIBRARY LESSON: Libraries should make their library catalog and database
offerings available on portable devices as soon as possible.

The strengths and preferences of the Millennial generation include multitasking, goal
orientation, positive attitudes, and a collaborative style of searching, learning, and
working.

LIBRARY LESSON: Libraries need to promote the development of effective
collaborative technology to speed up and improve searching as well as learning.

Millennials prefer experiential, constructivist learning through trial and error, rather than
through formal learning or reading. The evidence is that Millennials are reading far less
than other generations.

LIBRARY LESSON: Accelerated learning and increased learning productivity
are the next Millennial library frontiers, with a focus on learning rather than
teaching. Libraries must respond to the Millennial need for audio and visual
media and monitor their reading to determine what mix will of media will work.

To remain relevant, library decision makers need to reinvent libraries for this new
generation. Steps to accomplish this reinvention include:

• Maintain and organize digital institutional, community, and professional
  repositories.
• Continue to play an important role in helping and stimulating people to find and
  learn authentic new knowledge.
• Make local and published information searchable through Google and other
  Millennial tools and information sources.
• Accelerate Millennial self-learning and make learning easier and more productive.
• Present Millennials with a compelling vision to maintain their loyalty to the
  library.
• Reinvent physical libraries with hours of service more desirable to Millennials.
• Provide many different types of library spaces carefully planned and marketed to
  Millennials to support quiet work, group work, gaming, socializing, etc.
• Provide a wider selection of books, DVDs and other physical documents
  specifically marketed to Millennials.
• Use information and communication technologies to promote library services and
  provide services to support multitasking and collaboration.
• Appoint adult Millennials into decision-making and advisory positions as early as possible to capture their energy, ideas, and interests.
• Rethink and modify structures and policies designed mostly for delivery of physical documents to current users in traditional ways and reinvent them in terms of digital library environments serving Millennials.

6. Generation Z- the Newest Net Generation

Geck, Caroline. “The Generation Z Connections: Teaching Information Literacy to the
Newest Net Generation.” Teacher Librarian v.33, no.3 (2006): 19-23.

Generation Z, or those individuals born in or after 1990, are the first generation to be
born into a digital world. From infancy they have been surrounded by many high-tech
influences and have used many high-speed digital devices. They have access to a wealth
of information but do not have a deep understanding of the inner workings of the Internet
or how commercial search engines rank results. Their preferred method of searching is to
use Google, and they rely on Google to find answers to their questions without
questioning or evaluating the results. Generation Z may be tech savvy, but for the most
part they are not information literate and lack skills in accessing information efficiently
and effectively, evaluating information critically, and using information accurately.

Taking advantage of Generation Z’s technology skills, teacher- librarians can use the
Internet to introduce and develop information literacy skills. Teacher-librarians can
promote library services and themselves and help students become more information
literate by employing the following ideas and strategies.

• Collaborate with classroom teachers to integrate Internet technologies into the
  curriculum by
  • creating a well-designed library web site that will encourage both
    classroom teachers and students to visit the library;
  • arranging the physical library to support multitasking and
    collaboration; and
  • creating handouts of key print and digital resources, with visuals that
    classroom teachers can incorporate into their lesson activities

• Provide and promote print and digital resources by
  • using the library homepage to offer curriculum-focused bibliographies or lists of the
    best quality web sites to support coursework;
  • being an expert on the invisible web and even Google; and
  • offering instruction on recognizing misinformation on the web.
  
  
• Show students and classroom teachers how to save time when searching by
  demonstrating how print resources and electronic subscription databases can
  be used much more effectively than Google to find information.


• Supply students and classroom teacher with web page design technologies to
  deliver effective presentations by
  • serving as experts in web page creation and then assisting students and
    teachers in gathering and organizing information for their web pages;
  • helping teachers see the Internet not only as a source of content but as
    a communication and teaching tool; and
  • demonstrating how web pages can be used as a platform to generate
    new knowledge and facilitate new learning connections.
• Create communities of learners or electronic learning modules by linking
  students’ web pages to a centralized main page so that students can access
  different class or peer web pages.

7. Additional resources

http://www.sosspotlight.org

Educators' Spotlight Digest

This is a new, free publication and the first multimedia, online magazine dedicated to
providing information and ideas to teachers of information literacy skills. The Digest is a
resource from S.O.S. for Information Literacy, a project of Syracuse University's Center
for Digital Literacy, in collaboration with the American Association of School Librarians
(AASL) and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

http://www.marcprensky.com

Marc Prensky is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning and the founder and CEO of
Games2Train, a company that creates software games for learning. His web site provides
access to a number of articles he has written about education and school technology in
the 21st century. The site also has links to digital games he and others have created in
areas such as education, health, politics, and business.

I Found it on the Internet: Coming of Age Online

This book, written by Frances Jacobson Harris, presents commonsense solutions for high
school, middle school, and public youth librarians. This is a proactive guide that
addresses challenging technological issues facing teens and the librarians who serve
them.

Published by the American Library Association (2005) ISBN: 0838908985