Article #3: "Analyzing Student Search Strategies: Making a Case for Integrating Literacy Skills into the Curriculum." Scott, T. & O’Sullivan, M.(2005)

The purpose of this article was to determine how literate high school students were as Internet researchers. The authors contend that most students simply surf the Internet for the information they need for their assignments and the students feel that the more information they find, the better. This results in information overload and leaves the students often feeling frustrated and they end up surfing from one site to another with reckless abandon. Some even give up. Most high school students lack the skills required in using the Internet for research. They lack in their search strategies and in critical thinking.
One teacher noted that the overall structure of the Web is not real organized, not real useful for a lot of users. It is real easy to get lost, and until that straightens out, it is less than a helpful tool for those kids who do get lost, who tend not to think in that manner; you know, who can’t pick out a search term (Scott & O’Sullivan, 2005). Conducting research was not an easy or enjoyable task for most students.
The authors developed an action-research study to observe how high school students would proceed in locating answers to specific questions from four designated web sites to determine the impact that the hypertext environment had on a student’s ability to find specific information on the Internet. This Hypertext Literacy Exercise was conducted among four ninth-grade social studies classes (Scott & O’Sullivan, 2005).
The study revealed that the immediate strategy by many of the students to locate information was:
1) to seek out the web site’s Search screen;
2) to conduct a keyword search; and
3) to proceed to go through the list of hits.
Holscher and Strube (2000) describe this as a "browsing mode" (p. 339) and the students continued browsing for several clicks before ultimately returning to the Search screen to alter their query. Many of the students did not change their strategy in spite of continued failure to locate the information requested.
The authors also found that many students simply search in a random manner and appear not to understand the systematic process involved in finding information on the Web. Their search strategies are based on trial and error. The only strategy they used was to make minor changes in their keyword search. Very few applied the appropriate strategy of reviewing and analyzing how the web site was organized and then reviewing the subject links to select the most appropriate link for the information sought.

Conclusion
The authors observed that the students were unable to narrow searches and to discern useful links from nonuseful links. They lacked skill in conducting searches, and were unable to create efficient and effective keyword searches.
After reading this article, it is most apparent to me that the role of the teacher-librarian is even more essential than before. The amount of information via the Internet is incredible. Students need to be taught how to understand and interpret that information, and how to efficiently and effectively navigate the Internet. These are critical information literacy skills that students require in order to be prepared for higher level education. We need to also emphasize and require students to use a variety of sources for their research, and we need to make them aware that the Internet is just another tool they can add to their list of information retrieval sources. As Dupois (1997) observes, "Unless [both teachers and] librarians educate users about finding information, users will continue to underutilize and misuse information" (p. 98).

References
Dupois, E. (1997). The information literacy challenge: Addressing the changing needs of our students through our programs. In Lyn Elizabeth M. Martin (Ed.), The challenge of Internet literacy: The instruction-web convergence (p. 98). New York: Haworth Press.

Holscher, C., & Strube, G. (2000). Web search behavior of Internet experts and newsiest. Computer Networks 33, 337-346.

Scott, T., & O'Sullivan, M. (2005, October). Analyzing student search strategies: making a case for integrating information literacy skills into the curriculum. Teacher Librarian, 33(1), 21-25. Retrieved November 12, 2008, from Canadian Reference Centre database.