All students need an introduction to research skills including clarification of:
Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER). (2008). Information behaviour of the researcher of the future: The literature on young people and their information behaviour. London: University College London.
Study overturns the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation' is the most web-literate: they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read, and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web.
Duke, L.M. & Asher, A.D. (2012). College libraries and student culture: What we now know. Chicago, American Library Association.
Head, A. J. & Einsenberg, M. B.(2011). Finding context: What today's college students say about conducting research in the digital age. Project Information Literacy Progress Report. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Information iSchool.
Students experience significant challenges in finding relevant information that provides context for their topic.The first step of finding context occurs when students are gathering background information and tapping into complex information landscapes and students find it the most difficult part of the research process. Selecting and narrowing a topic is part of “big picture context” and finding and accessing relevant information is part of “information-gathering context.” This research demonstrates the problem of isolating information that is accurate, well-researched, and at the right level of complexity for the reader.
Head, A. & Eisenberg, M. (2009). Lessons learned: How college students seek information in the digital age. Project Information Literacy Progress Report. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Information iSchool.
Taylor, A. (2012). A study of the Information Search Behavior of the Millennial Generation. Information Research Today 17(1).