New Directions In Children S And Adolescents Information Behavior Research

This book comprises innovative research on the information behavior of various age groups. It also looks at special populations such as ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, and users with disabilities. The book presents research and reflections on designing systems that help the new generation cope with a complex knowledge society.

New Research in Information Behaviour provides an understanding of the new directions, leading edge theories and models in information behaviour. Information behaviour is conceptualized as complex human information related processes that are embedded within an individual's everyday social and life processes.

Has the information behavior of children and youth changed significantly over the last two decades? The Information Behavior of a New Generation: Children and Teens in the 21st Century attempts to answer this question from a variety of viewpoints. Thirteen researchers from educational psychology, computer science, education, and information studies have contributed to eleven chapters on models of information behavior, the cognitive development of youth, information literacy, everyday information behavior, cyber-bullying, gaming in virtual environments, learning labs, social networks, intellectual disabilities, and current and future systems. Whether they are referred to as digital natives, the Google-generation, or generation M, today's youth are active consumers and avid producers of digital information. Smart phones are the new generation's communication tools, social networks are their interaction venues, and virtual environments are their new playgrounds. This new digital communication era has prompted researchers from a variety of disciplines to contribute to this book on the information behavior of children and teens. One of the many conclusions that may be drawn from the chapters in the book is that information behavior is a multifaceted phenomenon, evolving alongside the rapid developments in information and communication technologies. The new generation tends to multitask, managing many activities simultaneously, such as scanning for and skimming information, texting brief messages, and posting audio and visual information on social media. While children and teens are tech savvy, they lack certain information and media literacy skills essential in today's digital environment. For researchers, the authors pose questions for further investigation in the hope that innovative services will be offered and novel systems will be developed to help the new generation. For teachers and information professionals, the authors provide a broad background to assist them with a more in-depth and thorough understanding and appreciation of children's and teens' information behavior.

The amount and range of information available to today’s students—and indeed to all learners—is unprecedented. If the characteristics of “the information age” demand new conceptions of commerce, national security, and publishing—among other things—it is logical to assume that they carry implications for education as well. Little has been written, however, about how the specific affordances of these technologies—and the kinds of information they allow students to access and create—relate to the central purpose of education: learning. What does “learning” mean in an information-rich environment? What are its characteristics? What kinds of tasks should it involve? What concepts, strategies, attitudes, and skills do educators and students need to master if they are to learn effectively and efficiently in such an environment? How can researchers, theorists, and practitioners foster the well-founded and widespread development of such key elements of the learning process? This second edition continues these discussions and suggests some tentative answers. Drawing primarily from research and theory in three distinct but related fields—learning theory, instructional systems design, and information studies—it presents a way to think about learning that responds directly to the actualities of a world brimming with information. The second edition also includes insights from digital and critical literacies and provides a combination of an updated research-and-theory base and a collection of instructional scenarios for helping teachers and librarians implement each step of the I-LEARN model. The book could be used in courses in teacher preparation, academic-librarian preparation, and school-librarian preparation.

The capacity to understand and communicate health information is a major international health concern. Sponsored by the Health and Biosciences Section of International Federation of Library Associations, this book highlights the contribution that librarians are making to improving health literacy and enabling citizens to be active participants in the management of their own health. Knowledge is power and the World Health Organization recognizes that health literacy, involving effective access to and understanding of health information, is essential to health and well-being in society by empowering and enabling citizens to participate in their own healthcare. The book presents inspiring studies from an international group of authors showing how libraries and librarians are partnering with diverse sectors of society including universities, hospitals, public health clinics, community-based organisations, voluntary bodies and government agencies, to help citizens understand and manage their health. It provides guidance by example to suggest how libraries can help citizens participate in their healthcare and their communities by collaborating with others to increase health literacy in society.

New Directions in Human Information Behavior, co-edited by Drs. Amanda Spink and Charles Cole provides an understanding of the new directions, leading edge theories and models in human information behavior. Information behavior is conceptualized as complex human information related processes that are embedded within an individual’s everyday social and life processes. The book presents chapters by an interdisciplinary range of scholars who show new directions that often challenge the established views and paradigms of information behavior studies. Beginning with an evolutionary framework, the book examines information behaviors over various epochs of human existence from the Palaeolithic Era and within pre-literate societies, to contemporary behaviors by 21st century humans. Drawing upon social and psychological science theories the book presents a more integrated and holistic approach to the understanding of information behaviors that include multitasking and non-linear longitudinal processes, individuals’ information ground, information practices and information sharing, digital behaviors and human information organizing behaviors. The final chapter of the book integrates these new approaches and presents an overview of the key trends, theories and models for further research. This book is directly relevant to information scientists, librarians, social and evolutionary psychologists. Undergraduate and graduate students, academics and information professionals interested in human information behavior will find this book of particular benefit.

Contains essays in which the authors explore the ways in which children and young adults seek, process, and use information, especially from electronic resources, focusing on young people who have developed beyond the picture book stage.

Adolescence is a developmental period of accelerating physical, psychological, social! cultural, and cognitive development, often characterized by confronting and surmounting a myriad of challenges and establishing a sense of self-identity and autonomy. It is also, unfortunately, a period fraught with many threats to the health and well-being of adoles cents and with substantial consequent impairment and disability. Many of the adverse health consequences experienced by adolescents are, to a large extent, the result of their risk behaviors. Many adolescents today, and perhaps an increasing number in the future, are at risk for death, disease, and other adverse health outcomes that are not primarily biomedical in origin. In general, there has been a marked change in the causes of morbidity and mortality among adolescents. Previously, infectious diseases accounted for a dispro portionate share of adolescent morbidity and mortality. At present, however, the over whelming toll of adolescent morbidity and mortality is the result of lifestyle practices.