The information-seeking behavior of youth in the digital environment.

ABSTRACT

The theory of Radical Change, which is based on the digital age principles of interactivity, connectivity, and access, is suggested as a lens to reexamine existing research on youth information-seeking behavior in the digital environment. After a brief review of research meta-analyses, which often point to deficits in youth information-seeking behavior, questions that emerge from this research are suggested. Meta-analyses of gender and information behavior studies find that some recent research disputes former conclusions. Radical Change is applied to an examination of specific facets of contemporary research in order to demonstrate how new perspectives can be gained. This analysis addresses commonalities between information-seeking behavior related to the handheld book with hypertextual qualities and digital materials, the social nature of information seeking, and emerging issues of access. It is noted that the public library as a setting for research has rarely been used, even though its less structured nature might provide insights that do not surface in schools. A look at directions for youth information-seeking behavior research in the future proposes how brain research might shed further light on behavioral observations. Conclusions note existing research and summarize some new points of view and areas for investigation.

INTRODUCTION

An up-to-date overview of research conducted during the past decade related to youth information-seeking behavior in a digital environment reveals challenges and opportunities. A theoretical examination of some of the studies provides new perspectives on research findings that have been overlooked and areas that are ripe for study.

Discussion of Terms

In this study, "information" refers to ideas or thoughts that individuals contribute, seek, or obtain from informal or formal discussion, investigation, or study. The whole of information behavior is a complex combination of factors. According to Wilson (1997), who is regarded as a founder of the study of information behavior, at least three facets must be considered. The focus will not be on the perceived need for information or on factors that affect the individual's response to this need but rather on the processes or actions, including information uses, involved in responding to the need.

The fully emerged digital age with a saturated digital environment did not occur until digital media (media with an embedded microchip) started to touch the lives of the general populace in the last decade of the twentieth century (Dresang, 1999b). In his book Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte (1995) of the MIT Media Lab wrote, "Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living" (p. 8). Negroponte and Dresang purport that the impact of the microchip extends beyond direct contact with digital media to influence how one gives, receives, and creates information. The digital environment is ubiquitous; it permeates everyday life.

Young people in the early twenty-first century are "growing up digital," a term applied by Don Tapscott (1997) to those who were born after 1977 and who have experienced a life in which computers are commonplace. With the same Internet-generation youth in mind, Holloway and Valentine (2001) coined the word "cyberkids" to describe young people whose lives are inextricably bound up with an Internet-saturated setting. The information-seeking behavior of these cyberkids, growing up digital, has raised numerous questions among researchers and educators.

The Evolution and Application of Radical Change Theory

In the 1997 issue of Library Trends, Children and the Digital Library, Dresang (1997) introduced the theory of Radical Change for the first time in a scholarly publication. The thesis then--and now--is that the term "digital materials" refers not only to those media that incorporate the technology of the microchip but also to "handheld" materials that embody characteristics of the digital environment. In other words, the digital environment has influenced some nondigitized media to take on digital characteristics. Initially Dresang developed the Radical Change theory to explain the changes in handheld books for youth that reflect the interactivity, connectivity, and access of the digital world (Burnett & Dresang, 1999; Dresang, 1997, 1999b, 2003; Dresang & McClelland, 1999; Nodelman & Reimer, 2003). In the 1997 article, she applied Radical Change to explain this reflection of the digital environment in only one type of "change" in the handheld book, that is, forms and formats that reflect the hypertextual, multilayered, and graphic interfaces of the computer. Subsequently she described two other types of changes that are observed in books influenced by the digital environment: perspectives that incorporate previously marginalized populations, including those of youth; and expanded boundaries that encompass new types of communities, characters, and subjects previously forbidden. These Radical Change books serve as one example that the influence of the digital environment extends far beyond the digital resources themselves.

But other developments have occurred in relation to the Radical Change theory since that 1997 article (Fisher, Erdelez, & McKenzie, 2005). Researchers in the fields of information studies and information science (Agosto, 2002; Dresang, 1999a) have noted that information seeking in a digital environment influenced by digital age principles may call for new perspectives. In the field of education, several researchers (Abele, 2003; Hammerberg, 2001; Pantaleo, 2002, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c) have applied the Radical Change principles to examine or explain not only books but also information behaviors.John Zbikowski (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater) used Radical Change to explicate "the relationship between information and communication technologies and literacy development in and out of schools" (personal communication, March 2, 2003), and Judith Ridge (University of Sydney) found Radical Change useful in exploring creative writing (personal communication, February 18, 2004).

Radical Change, then, is a theoretical concept that applies digital age principles to explain both some information resources and some information behaviors. These digital age principles are further described in the relevant sections below.

After an overview of the current state of research, the theory of Radical Change is applied to examine and explain selected areas of youth information seeking in a digital environment with the purpose of lending additional insights on which researchers and professionals might capitalize.

INFORMATION-SEEKING BEHAVIOR IN A DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT: META-ANALYSES

Enough studies have been conducted during the past decade to warrant meta-analyses of youth information-seeking behavior in a digital environment. Research has focused on attitudes and preferences, search processes, modes and skills, and perceived relevance of results; it has been carried out with specific age groups and disaggregated by gender. Schools have been the most common setting for this research, with few studies in public library settings. Research on youth and digital media, which first focused on Online Public Access Catalogs (OPACs) and CD-ROMs, more recently has turned to the Web as the medium.

General Studies

Bilal's (2004) examination of research focuses first on children's tasks--self-generated (see Gross, 1999), fact, or research--when approaching the Web. She analyzes their success and their strategies (or lack thereof), referring to her own seminal research on children's use of the Yahooligans! Web search engine (Bilal, 2000, 2001, 2002). What little is known about children's experience and domain knowledge as relevant to success (Marchionini, 1989) is covered. She concludes that more research is needed on measures of children's success; on the effect of the structure of tasks; on children's prior abilities related to results; on the influence of cognitive styles and mental models; and on children as designers of interfaces. A complementary meta-analysis piece (Large, 2004) focuses exclusively on elementary age children's Web searching.

Todd's (2003) meta-analysis of adolescents' information seeking and use scholarship provides a theoretical approach…