School of library, Archive and Information studies, University College of London – www.ucl.ac.uk/slais
People carry the print paradigm with them into the virtual environment.
We have to let go of the idea that people look for information anywhere that online
Want to show the scale of what is happening.
Background: The google generation
Research for the JISC
Young obtain information in very different ways – search engines, blogs, social networks etc.
If true, will it prove habit forming and would they still be behaving like that in the future (5-10 years)
Concentrate here on how young people seek information
The intermediated system has been busted!
Evaluate digital footprints of millions of users
Evidence based – 6 million people – real behaviour
Big demand for scholarly product
Access main driver. More popple drawn into the scholarly net & excisting users can serarch more freely and flexibly
Lots of noise – are people happy with the results?
In case of UK government funded websites intended for younger people less than a third of visits from UK.
UK has a good information/education brand. Evidence of strong BL brand.
Around 40% of visitors do not come back, shop around
Ascribed to: poor retrieval skills, leaving memories in cyberspace, massive choice, google constantly refreshing the virtual lanedscape
Young people are the most bouncy
Half of all visitors view 1-3 pages from thousands available. Bounce in again, and then out again
Bounce because of search engines, massive choice, acceptance of failure, pragmatism and shortage of time.
Convenience replaces content
They flick
Some bouncing can be attributed to flicking
A kind of channel hopping, checking form of behaviour
They view rather than read!
Have been conditioned by emailing, chatting and text messaging
Don’t view an article online for more that 2 minutes
If its long, either read the abstract or squirrel it away for a day when it will not be read (digital osmosis)
2/3 of all downloaded will never will be read.
Go online to avoid reading
They power browse
Hoover through titles, contents pages and abstracts at a huge rate of knots. The horizontal has replaced the vertical
They love to travel, do not always like getting there.
Navigating towards content
They like immversive information environments
Publishers have a problem with speaking in the database
users want the wisdom of the crowd – most popular items etc.
Brand is more complicated than you think
Difficult in cyberspace – responsibility and authority almost impossible in a digital environment – so many players, so many brands
Brand cool
Reflections
Young peoples behaviours – frenetic, bouncing, navigating, checking and viewing. Also promiscuous, diverse and volatile
Partly because of lack of mental map, lack Sense of collection, what is good.
Failure at the terminal
Access do not equal satisfaction and success!
Possibly: Guardian article
The really big issue!
Massive paradigm shift, or was it always so?
Has web enfranchised or disenfranchised at the same time?
Life-critical services are being rolled out to the web. Finding that access does not equal outcome or satisfaction
Vulnerable people exposed in this environment and fail in their millions. Inequalities will arise
We are slow to realize that the future is now!
