Uncertainty in information seeking behaviour in the virtual playground of Generation Y students at Stellenbosch University

Contemporary academic library users in Kenya: their needs and preferences in access and use of information resources

“…This was a conclusion made by Holman (2011) that digital natives need information literacy to accurately access information needed. These findings are in tandem with Adams (2010) and Grant’s (2012) observations; that the digital natives, even though perceived to be tech-savvy, lacked the information-literacy skills needed to adequately perform searches. This researcher, while interacting with undergraduate students inquired why they did not use academic databases, and the response from one of them was “why spend so much time to learn how to use these complicated databases when I can easily google what I want?” Based on these findings, it is the opinion of this researcher that digital natives want to use the easiest way possible to accomplish their goals, which are to pass exams.…”

“…Literature showed that digital natives, even though perceived to be tech-savvy, lack the information-literacy skills needed to adequately perform searches in academic databases and, consequently, need training (Adams, 2010; Grant, 2012). The study sought to determine if users accessed academic databases, how frequently; and if there was a significant difference between the way digital immigrants used academic databases in relation to digital natives, as illustrated in Figure 5.…”

“…It is notable that even though the Google generation is perceived to be tech-savvy, they lack the information-literacy skills needed to adequately perform searches (Adams, 2010; Grant, 2012). Information professionals should continue to hold information-literacy classes for the digital natives to enable them use information effectively.…”

User Perceptions of Uncertainty in the Evaluation of Search Results

“…Those include: three types of uncertainty related to knowledge deficiency -indeterminacy, ignorance, and incommensurability [12]; positive uncertainty to generate creativity [13]; correlations among information seeking activities and information seeking problems that cause uncertainty [14]; the effects of physicians' attitudes toward uncertainty on their use of electronic information resources [15]; use of online tutorials to reduce uncertainty in information seeking behavior [16]; a review of the literature with a focus on emotion (i.e., uncertainty) of healthcare professionals [17]; uncertainty of work task in stage-driven information seeking process [18]; uncertainty in the virtual playground of generation Y students [19]; information seeking activities and information seeking problem as the causes of uncertainty [20]; the effects of task uncertainty on the scope of external information seeking [21]; three different types(task, A few studies investigated user perceptions of uncertainty, yet in different stages from the stage of results evaluation as the present study does. Those different stages include the selection of information systems [6] and the selection of search terms [7].…”

Exploring the lived information-seeking experiences of mature students

“…Students construct meaning from the information they find by searching for and thinking about information in an iterative, trial-anderror process. Kuhlthau (1991Kuhlthau ( ,1993Kuhlthau et al 2008), Genuis (2007), Adams (2010), and Chowdhury et al (2011) have noted that the trial-and-error aspects of information seeking can often inspire feelings of anxiety which can stop an information seeker in his or her tracks. These scholars of information literacy (IL) attempt to provide an improved understanding of the information seeking process to both the librarians, who help students learn how to navigate the college information landscape, and to the mature students who may possess unique information seeking strengths and weaknesses (Given 2000(Given , 2002a(Given , 2002b.…”