An Investigation into Scottish Teenagers’ Information Literacy and Search Skills

This research paper which was the result of a CILIP ILG bursary granted to David Brazier and Morgan Harvey Northumbria University, was presented at ISIC: The Information Behaviour Conference, 9 -11 October 2018 http://www.isic2018.com/programme/isic-2018-programme.html by David Brazier, Morgan Harvey and Geoff Walton.

Introduction. This paper presents the results of a study investigating the information literacy and search skills of young people in Scotland. Method. Participants (n=57) completed two out of four different search tasks for which the correct answers (i.e. relevant documents) were known. Their interactions with the search system were logged and information about their own perceptions of the task were collected through pre- and post-task questionnaires. Analysis. The log data from the search system was analysed using the R statistical software package to understand the performance and behaviour of the participants when conducting the search tasks. 

Results. While we identified some evidence that information literacy and search skills were being employed, overall performance was low with participants often unable to produce successful queries and/or unable to identify relevant documents, even when some were present in the results. 

Conclusions. Search performance and ability to identify relevant information was generally poor, a fact that participants themselves were frequently unable to recognise. The results also suggest a reliance on complex search assistance tools (such as spell checking and query suggestions), which are common features of major search engines, but not of smaller systems, which pupils are also likely to have to use.

Posted by Jenny Foreman, Scottish Government Library