Digital Native Or Digital Immigrant

Digital Native or Digital Immigrant

March 2006: Compiled and annotated by Marianne Steadley

Exploring Ways to Bridge the Generational Divide in the Library

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Understanding the Millennials
Information Seeking Behavior of Gen Y Students
Generation Y and the Academic Library
Net Generation and Libraries
Reinventing Library Buildings and Services for Millennials

In Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584-2069, authors William Strauss and Neil Howe, identify and name American generations starting with the Puritan in
1584, through others such as the Awakening, Progressive, Silent, GI, and Boomers, to
the current Millennial generation. Millennials, also known as Generation Y, the Net
Generation, the Digital Generation, the Echo Boom generation were born during the
period of about 1980 - 2001 and are in our schools, universities, and recently have
entered adulthood. And while only the youngest of this Millennial generation, sometimes
known as Generation Z, have been surrounded by digital technology from infancy, the
others have grown up and have extensive experience with the web and other
technologies. These "digital natives" often pose a challenge to librarians, many of whom
are Boomers or Generation X and are "digital immigrants.

The first two articles highlighted in this issue address how Millennials go through the
research and information seeking processes in, and more importantly, out of the physical
library. The next four articles deliver suggestions on ways libraries can meet the
information needs of this networked, interactive, multimedia oriented culture. While
these articles discuss serving students in academic libraries, they are also applicable to
school, special and public libraries working with this generation of tech savvy, mobile, multitasking individuals. -- the Editors

1. Understanding the Millennials

Holliday, Wendy and Qin Li. "Understanding the Millennials: Updating our Knowledge
about Students." Reference Services Review, v.32, no.4 (2004): 346-366.

Kuhlthau's Information Search Process (ISP) model, developed in 1991, describes six stages that students go through in the research process: (1) initiation; (2) topic selection; (3) pre-focus exploration; (4) focus formulation; (5) information collection; and (6) search closure/presentation. At each stage, individuals encounter different feelings, usually starting with uncertainly and anxiety changing to greater confidence, relief and satisfaction.

In 2003 Holliday and Li conducted a study to determine whether the ISP model held up for a new generation of students, the Millennials, who have extensive experience with the web and technology. The study questioned whether the students' thoughts, feelings, and actions during the research process changed because of their experience with the web. The study also sought to determine the impact of a new research environment with easy access to seemingly limitless information resources.

While the findings are still preliminary, the study suggests that easy access to information
via the web has changed students' models of the information environment and
expectations of the research process.

Millennials expect research to be easy and feel they can be independent in the process.
They do not seek help from librarians and only occasionally from professors or peers.
When they can't find what they need, they give up and assume that the information
cannot be found. This leads to a new feeling of frustration in the ISP model.
Some students skip steps in the process, especially focus formulation. Students often stop
after their initial searches thinking they have completed the research process and fail to
choose a particular focus.
Access to full text articles seems to have changed students' cognitive behavior. Instead of
having to read through material at the library, they can now download material at their
desks. They do not have to take notes or read through them to develop themes and ideas,
an activity central to a focused research project. Electronic articles enable cutting and
pasting, possibly leading to increased plagiarism.

The study concludes that the ISP remains a useful prescriptive model to help guide students through the research process. The model might become even more important in information literacy instruction by providing scaffolding that gets students to look beyond their first hits of a Google search.

2. Information Seeking Behavior of Gen Y Students

Weller, Angela. "Information Seeking Behavior in Generation Y Students: Motivation,
Critical Thinking, and Learning Theory." Journal of Academic Librarianship v. 31, no.
1 (January 2005): 46-53.

Weller explores research in information-seeking behavior, motivation, critical thinking, and learning theory to search for possible motivating factors for Gen Y's reliance, not on books, but on television and the Internet for their information needs. The author considers a focus group study conducted by the University of Idaho Library that examined "general information seeking" behavior of undergraduate students rather than highly specific areas of study or resources.

The study showed that:

Students often cited human beings as sources of information. They preferred to discuss information needs with a real person rather than find out what they needed on their own. The highest criteria on the students' list of needs when seeking information were ease of use, reliability, accuracy, currency, availability, and cost. Of secondary importance were trust, quality, credibility, validity, completeness, and comprehensiveness.
The most cited obstacles to obtaining information were "infoglut" and questionable validity.
In rating information-seeking experiences, how much time was spent looking for information was of primary importance, and students often accepted inappropriate information or lower quality information if it took less time.

Conclusions:

Issues of time and levels of difficulty in obtaining information are usually of more concern to students than issues of accuracy.
Generation Y students are primarily visual learners, a style which is often in conflict with the habits of many instructors.
Hands-on activities should be directly related to a specific task that the student perceives as necessary.
Students are concerned about saving time, so pointing out the timesaving aspects of using the library's web site or of good searching techniques may help reach students.

3. Generation Y and the Academic Library

Gardner, Susan and Susanna Eng. "What Students Want: Generation Y and the Changing
Function of the Academic Library." portal: Libraries and the Academy v.5, no.3 (2005):
405-420.

Librarians at the Thomas and Dorothy Seavey Library at the University of Southern
California conducted a survey of Generation Y students to evaluate the impact of four
characteristics ascribed to this generation on library services. Generation Y students:

Have great expectations.
Expect customization.
Are technology veterans.
Utilize new communications.

Generation Y students demand quality academic facilities and high academic achievement of themselves. The survey found that the top three reasons to visit the library were all related to academic achievement: (1) study alone; (2) use a computer for class work; and (3) study with a group.

Generations Y students expect services will be available 24/7 in a variety of modes. They prefer doing research online and expect customization of technology and research to support their needs. They don't see the Internet and technology as tools but as integral parts of their lives. Research is done with an ATM attitude - fast and easy. Assignments are often group based and Generation Y students use a variety of communication tools to support group learning.

Implications for library services

Gen Y students look to their peers for help more than authority figures suggesting a tiered approach to reference with well-trained student workers backed up by reference librarians.
Higher education has shifted its curriculum toward more collaboration and group projects generating a need for interactive group space as well as for enclosed single user rooms in the library.
Many students perceive their learning as mobile and use the library remotely so libraries need an infrastructure to support remote usage of their resources, including email and chat reference service. Libraries can also provide mobile services by implementing a program to bring "roving" librarians to spaces they are not usually found, such as the student union building.
Research now involves technology, so a combined reference desk and technology service point in one area offers opportunities to bring students closer to the reference desk and librarians.
Wireless networks will enable student laptops to access library tools from anywhere on campus.
Students expect one-stop shopping when it comes to research, which can be partially addressed through the use of library portals or single interfaces providing access to library catalogs, online reference material, e-journals and teaching materials.

4. Net Generation and Libraries

Lippincott, Joan R. "Net Generation Students and Libraries." Educating the Net
Generation. Eds. Diane Oblinger and James l. Oblinger, Boulder, CO: Educause, 2005.

Libraries can remain a vital part of campus life if they are designed with a real
understanding of the needs of Net Gen students. Unfortunately, there are some major
disconnects between students and many of today's academic libraries. Students often turn
to Google or another search engine because they find library-sponsored resources too
difficult to figure out on their own, and they are seldom exposed to or interested in formal
instruction in information literacy. Another disconnect is that library services and digital
resources are presented in the library organization context rather than in a user-centered
mode, such as within a course management system (CMS). Libraries can improve
access and services by paying attention to the style of Net Gen Students.

Successful Net Gen access services will:

Integrate library information into Google Scholar or other popular search engines so that information from peer-reviewed publications can be accessed easily.
Integrate more multimedia resources into their searchable content and incorporate "open" web resources into their catalogs.
Include subject pathfinders in the CMS to bring information to the place where students will be actively engaged in academic work.
Offer simplified and graphic ways for students to approach discipline searches.

Successful Net Gen information services will:

Use students on teams that design new services for both the virtual and physical environments. Making use of the skills and perspectives of Net Gen students will help to ensure that new services will be responsive to their needs and styles.
Represent services and instruction visually and in multimedia modes. Interactive Web sites that offer visual representations will appeal to Net Gen students.
Integrate information literacy instruction into the curriculum and information services into the CMS.
Explore services for mobile devices such as cell phones.
Emphasize information policy issues such as intellectual property and privacy.

Successful Net Gen environments will:

Provide individual and group learning spaces in the library equipped with computing resources where academic work can be carried out in a social context.
Promote community by providing comfortable spaces for informal gatherings.
Offer joint support to users from both the library and IT units.
Integrate physical spaces and services with virtual spaces and services.
Effectively market to all groups of users bearing in mind Net Gen's visual style.

5. Reinventing LibraryBuildings and Services for Millennials

Sweeney, Richard T. "Reinventing LibraryBuildings and Services for the Millennial Generation." Library Administration and Management v.19, no. 4 (2005): 165-75.

Millennials are the second largest generation in U.S history, second only to the Baby
Boomers and far larger than Generation X, which directly preceded them. Millennials
have such vastly different needs and expectations than Boomers, that librarians are being
forced to rethink and redesign library services to remain relevant. While technology,
librarian expectations, library buildings and traditional library services are important in
shaping the library, it is the Millennials (user) expectations and demands that will
determine what will flourish and what will flounder.

Millennial expectations, behaviors, values, and characteristics reflect a networked, interactive, multimedia oriented culture, which should be considered by library planners.

LIBRARY LESSON: As consumers in the library, Millennials expect to choose from many alternatives and have the ability to customize and personalize. Libraries need to have a wide selection of choices if they are to appeal to the varied interests of Millennials.

The Millennial generation values education and training, expects more balance between work and personal lives, and believes in merit-based systems. They expect to be rewarded for their work and don't have much sympathy for decisions that are based on seniority. Millennials in the workforce will be more challenging to train than Boomers or Gen Xers.

LIBRARY LESSON: Librarians will need to show Millennials how library work can be flexible, innovative, and intellectually compelling, and that they will learn important skills they can use in a number of jobs.

Millennials have also been raised on immediate gratification and expect instant access with immediate feedback. They want as many services as possible to be available online anytime they choose.

LIBRARY LESSON: Successful library hours and service availability must be based on Millennial needs, not the convenience of the library staff. Services such as access to remote online journals, databases, e-books, and reference assistance will need to be provided.

About a fifth of this generation is the offspring of immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the 1980's. Millennials are a diverse group, more tolerant than previous generations.

LIBRARY LESSON: Librarians will need to market libraries to those who speak foreign languages, who have different cultural interests, and who have not traditionally used the library.

Millennials are digital natives, born into an era in which digitally produced resources and services are common. For them, digital networked services are preferred as the information service delivery mechanism and more important than the physical library. Many librarians and library administrators are digital immigrants who learned to use digital services later in life. ?

LIBRARY LESSON: Librarians must merge all library services digitally to meet the information and communication expectations of the Millennial generation. Physical and virtual libraries must be inseparable.

Millennials are heavy technology users, with much experience in gaming and communications using every available electronic device or channel.

LIBRARY LESSON: Librarians and vendors will need to build gaming characteristics into their systems to be successful with Millennials.

Millennials expect their technology to be mobile and to have access anywhere and anytime. They expect technology to offer one stop shopping for all their technology and information needs. Today most library catalogs can't be searched from a mobile device.

LIBRARY LESSON: Libraries should make their library catalog and database offerings available on portable devices as soon as possible.

The strengths and preferences of the Millennial generation include multitasking, goal orientation, positive attitudes, and a collaborative style of searching, learning, and working.

LIBRARY LESSON: Libraries need to promote the development of effective collaborative technology to speed up and improve searching as well as learning.

Millennials prefer experiential, constructivist learning through trial and error, rather than through formal learning or reading. The evidence is that Millennials are reading far less than other generations.

LIBRARY LESSON: Accelerated learning and increased learning productivity are the next Millennial library frontiers, with a focus on learning rather than teaching. Libraries must respond to the Millennial need for audio and visual media and monitor their reading to determine what mix will of media will work.

To remain relevant, library decision makers need to reinvent libraries for this new generation. Steps to accomplish this reinvention include:

Maintain and organize digital institutional, community, and professional repositories.
Continue to play an important role in helping and stimulating people to find and learn authentic new knowledge.
Make local and published information searchable through Google and other Millennial tools and information sources.
Accelerate Millennial self-learning and make learning easier and more productive. Present Millennials with a compelling vision to maintain their loyalty to the library.
Reinvent physical libraries with hours of service more desirable to Millennials.
Provide many different types of library spaces carefully planned and marketed to Millennials to support quiet work, group work, gaming, socializing, etc.
Provide a wider selection of books, DVDs and other physical documents specifically marketed to Millennials.
Use information and communication technologies to promote library services and provide services to support multitasking and collaboration.
Appoint adult Millennials into decision-making and advisory positions as early as possible to capture their energy, ideas, and interests.
Rethink and modify structures and policies designed mostly for delivery of physical documents to current users in traditional ways and reinvent them in terms of digital library environments serving Millennials.