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The behaviour of the researcher of the future (the ‘Google generation’)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

David Nicholas
David Nicholas*
Affiliation:
UCL Centre for Publishing and CIBER research group, Henry Morley Building, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
*
Email: david.nicholas@ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper describes and evaluates the information-seeking behaviour of young people in the virtual environment. Data are drawn from a JISC/BL funded project on the future scholar and a seven-year study of the virtual scholar conducted by CIBER at University College London. Hundreds of thousands of young people, mainly students, from all over the globe, are covered in the log analyses. On the basis of these data, the characteristics of their ‘digital footprints’ are drawn, demonstrating the huge paradigm shift that has occurred in the information seeking of young scholars. The results are surprising, disturbing and challenging and the author concludes with a discussion of how information professionals and the arts and humanities community in general might best meet young people’s information needs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , 2010 , pp. 18 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2010

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References

References

1. University College London, Information behaviour of the researcher of the future: a CIBER briefing paper (London: University College, 2008), http://www.bl.uk/news/pdf/googlegen.pdf.Google Scholar
2. British Library Learning at the British Library, http://www.bl.uk/learning/.Google Scholar
3. Intute, http://www.intute.ac.uk/.Google Scholar
4. COUNTER, http://www.projectcounter.org/ Google Scholar
5. Naughton, John, ‘Thanks, Gutenberg - but we’re too pressed for time to read,’ Guardian, 27 January 2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/27/internet.pressandpublishing/.Google Scholar

Bibliography

Nicholas, David, ‘Adapt to the new information seeking paradigm (and avoid disconnecting from the digital consumer)’ in Proceedings of the Online Information Conference 2008, 131–134 (London: 2008).Google Scholar
Nicholas, David, ‘If we do not understand our users, we will certainly fail,’ E-resources management handbook, vol. 1, 122–129 (Oxford: UK Serials Group, 2006-), http://www.uksg.0rg/serials#handbook/.CrossRefGoogle Scholar