Abstract
This literature review attempts to give an overview of the field of university students' information behaviour. Students are generally one of the most investigated groups in the field of human information behaviour, but the field of students' information behaviour is difficult to draw into a coherent knowledge base. There are many studies of different aspects of information behaviour conducted over different groups of students. This paper presents some of the key conclusions and perspectives of selected studies. Studies in this field are conducted from the beginning of 1970's when the focus was on exploring the usage of library resources and services. During the last two decades the interest in students' library use and information behaviour in general has increased and the focus of research expanded. This review presents the literature in the following main areas: disciplinary differences in information seeking and use, the impact of curriculum and wider context including learning and teaching, effects of personality attributes, and studies that focus on use of electronic information resources. This paper also highlights research problems that authors suggest as topics for further studies.
Highlights
At the end of 1970’s and at the beginning of 1980’s there was a shift of paradigms in user studies, related to the move from system centered to person-centered user studies (Limberg 2000, 51)
As Saracevic quotes the early motivation for user studies was pragmatic, to discover guidelines for the improvement of practice (Saracevic 2010, 2578)
The authors emphasize the need for additional research that will strengthen “further connections between information behaviour research and information literacy instruction and will provide a more complete understanding of the potential role information encountering in this instruction.“ (Erdelez, Basic and Levitov 2011)
Summary
At the end of 1970’s and at the beginning of 1980’s there was a shift of paradigms in user studies, related to the move from system centered to person-centered user studies (Limberg 2000, 51). This literature review includes only research of university students, and is based on categorization of literature by Rowley and Urquhart (2007) According to these two authors, there are two main directions for research: research of individual information behaviour, and research on the patterns of usage of resources. The research in the former direction use smallscale studies which usually examine the information behaviour of students in specific universities and disciplines, while studies in the later direction focus on usage of information sources and often include implications for training and support. Even though students in general, as well as university students, are often studied role, literature does not offer unique review of information behaviour of university students. Case (2008, 301) in his review of research of particular social roles states that role of a student coincides with other categories, age-based categories, and that most studies involving students are focused on some other phenomenon and he does not offer a unique review of research categories of students
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