This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Shenton, A. K. Articles by Hayter, S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Children's conceptualizations of the word `Information'

School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, Northumbria University, England, ashenton1{at}hotmail.com

Valerie Nesset

McGill University, Canada

Susan Hayter

University of Western Ontario, Canada

Although information has become increasingly prevalent in young people's lives, minimal research has addressed children's attitudes to the word itself. This paper scrutinizes questionnaire-based data to explore how 45 eight- to ten-year-old Canadians understood the term. `Information' was often considered to be material that met a need, covered particular territory or was associated with action by an individual. The youngsters identified many features they believed characteristic of `good information'; where these requirements were not met the material was frequently deemed `bad information'. The research findings have implications for teachers and librarians, as well as for researchers investigating children's information needs.

Key Words: children • information • information needs • user studies

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Vol. 40, No. 3, 151-164 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0961000608092551


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?