Beyond Google: helping library and information professionals work with the Google generation

Abstract

This paper outlines a Higher Education Academy (HEA)-funded project undertaken by the authors, the output of which was a video designed to help library and information professionals in their work with younger users. While many young people are confident users of the Internet as a tool for communication and sharing information, it should not be assumed they are also competent seekers, finders and evaluators of information. There is a growing realisation that the myriad of information sources on the Internet and the increasing number of tools to find and filter information may be confusing to inexperienced users. An important role for library and information professionals is to help users make sense of this complexity. After outlining some of these issues this paper describes the authors’ project and the feedback it received from its viewers in the library and information community.