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.

Subject guides, VLEs and PBL

Very selective highlights from the latest library journals .

College & Research Libraries vol.68 No.2 March 2007
Academic subject guides : a case study of use at San Jose State University.

Might be worth a read as we consider the future of our own subject guides. It also made me want to find out more about the research it mentions by Kuhlthau who has apparently identified a gap between the way in which subject guides are traditionally presented and the way in which students work.

Serials. Vol.20 No.1 March 2007
Death of the VLE?: a challenge to a new orthodoxy.

Looks at the history of the VLE, the current state of the market and the effect of several new variables on its future. One of these variables is Web 2.0 with its focus on the web as platform and social, collaborative and frequently informal learning.

The Journal of Academic Librarianship. Vol.33 No.2. March 2007
The impact of problem-based learning on the information behavior and literacy of vetinary medicine students at University College Dublin.

This study found that problem based learning "resulted in students visiting the library earlier, better understanding how to use resources, becoming more discerning regarding information and learning how to integrate information effectively."