Information - how people find it.

College & Research Libraries Vol.69 No.5 September 2008
Information literacy from the trenches: how do humanities and social science majors conduct academic research?
This study conducted at St Mary's College of California - a small liberal arts institution -found that students first step in researching a topic was to read the course textbook, followed by a visit to the library website, then a search engine. People and bought books came lower down the list.


College & Research Libraries Vol.69 No.6 November 2008
Information seeking through students' eyes: the MIT photo diary study
This study at MIT found that students most frequently used information source was Google, next was going directly to a URL, third was using the library catalogue, and these were followed by databases and the course website. Books and people came lower down the list.


Aslib Proceedings Vol.60 No.5 2008
Information seeking behaviour of physicists and astronomers
The most frequently used information source for physicists and astronomers at UCL was Google. Databases, ejournals and tracking references at the end of articles were also frequently used. However when asked how they had found the last article they had read the most often mentioned source was recommendation from colleagues.


Aslib Proceedings Vol.60 No.6 2008
Seeking serendipity: the paradox of control
Explores the importance of the 'happy and unexpected discovery' in information seeking.


Serials Volo.21, No.1 March 2008
A parallel universe? Blogs, wikis, Web 2.0 and a complicated future for scholarly communication
Looks at how Web 2.0 tools are likely to change the nature of scholarly communication and information use and how both publishers and librarians will need to adapt to those changes.

Digital literacies and social software

Martin, Allan. Digital literacies for learning. 025.5

A collection of papers exploring the nature of digital or e-literacy and ways in which educators, librarians and technologists can support students in developing it.

Bradley, Phil. How to use web 2.0 in your library. 025.02

Snapfish, Squidoo, CiteULike, Odeo, Gabbly, and Liszen. If you're not sure what they are this is the book to get hold of. As well as being an excellent overview of the social software explosion this book also suggests practical library applications for RSS, blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking, wikis, instant messaging, mashups, photo sharing and more.

Information Commons and One Shot Library Workshops

Beagle, Donald Robert. The Information Commons Handbook. 025.52

A look at what is involved in developing an information commons or social learning space in public and academic libraries. Includes a CD of 'success stories'.

Weldof, Jerilyn. Creating the one-shot library workshop: a step-by-step guide. 025.5

Given that 'one-shot' is often all we get, how can we make the best use of the little time we have? I liked the PAF model (presentation-application-feedback) and the reminder of how tempting it can be to spend too much time on presentation, overloading people with information without giving them enough time to apply it or to clear up any confusion.