Table of contents
Abstract
A report of findings from 2,318 respondents to a survey carried out among college students on six campuses distributed across the U.S. in the spring of 2009, as part of Project Information Literacy. Respondents, while curious in the beginning stages of research, employed a consistent and predictable research strategy for finding information, whether they were conducting course-related or everyday life research. Almost all of the respondents turned to the same set of tried and true information resources in the initial stages of research, regardless of their information goals. Almost all students used course readings and Google first for course-related research and Google and Wikipedia for everyday life research. Most students used library resources, especially scholarly databases for course-related research and far fewer, in comparison, used library services that required interacting with librarians. The findings suggest that students conceptualize research, especially tasks associated with seeking information, as a competency learned by rote, rather than as an opportunity to learn, develop, or expand upon an information-gathering strategy which leverages the wide range of resources available to them in the digital age.
Preferred citation format: Alison J. Head and Michael B. Eisenberg (December 1, 2009), Lessons learned: How college students seek information in the digital age, Project Information Literacy First Year Report with Student Survey Findings, University of Washington’s Information School, https://projectinfolit.org/publications/information-seeking-habits/
Media coverage
- Alison J. Head & Michael B. Eisenberg, “College students eager to learn but need help negotiating information overload,” The Seattle Times, June 3, 2011.
- Barbara Fister, “Undergraduates in the library, trying not to drown,”Inside Higher Education (reprint), November 1, 2010.
The Lessons Learned Report has a Creative Commons (CC) license of “CC BY-NCSA 4.0.” This license allows others to share, copy, adapt, and build upon the survey data non-commercially, as long as the source — Project Information Literacy — is credited and users license their new creations under the identical terms.