Weaving through the web: How students navigate information online in the twenty-first century

Abstract

This chapter investigates the processes students employ when searching online for information to include in an academic essay. Against a backdrop of literature from the past three decades, we present findings from a recent observational study (employing screen-recording software and stimulated recall) of how students approach a writing-from-sources task, supplemented by interviews with librarians at a post-1992 UK university. We discuss three aspects of our participants’ search for sources: where they searched, how they searched and which sources they selected. Our participants displayed a wide range of skill levels and approaches to searching, and in some cases a high degree of persistence. We highlight the information literacy challenges they faced, and suggest how some of these could be addressed.