Access denied: how students resolve information needs when an "ideal" document is restricted

Authors:
Eric M. Meyers
Affiliations:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Canada
Venue:
Proceedings of the 2012 iConference
Year:
2012

Citing 6
Cited 0

Children's Internet searching on complex problems: performance and process analyses

Journal of the American Society for Information Science - Special issue on user-centered cooperative systems
A visit to the information mall: Web searching behavior of high school students

Journal of the American Society for Information Science - Special topic issue: youth issues in information science
Children's use of the Yahooligans! Web search engine: 1. cognitive, physical, and affective behaviors on fact-based search tasks

Journal of the American Society for Information Science
Bounded rationality and satisficing in young people's Web-based decision making

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Out of the mouths of middle school children: I. Developing user-defined controlled vocabularies for subject access in a digital library: Research Articles

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Developing Web literacy in collaborative inquiry activities

Computers & Education

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Finding the right match between a document and an information need appears to be of particular concern to adolescent information seekers, who expect a wealth of information at their fingertips. Using qualitative and quantitative data from a mixed method study of middle school research practices, this poster explores how students react to a breakdown in the search for information online, specifically when a seemingly ideal document to meet an information need is blocked by the school's content filter. The findings illustrate the variety of strategies employed by students to meet the need, and the impact of the search barrier on students' information seeking success and their completion of the inquiry task. The poster concludes with implications for the mediation of search tasks in the school environment.