Children and Their Information Needs
-By Pujan S Mehta (2007)
Group of information users: Children.
Increasingly, children are gaining access to digital information with the means of the internet. Many kinds of information are available online, from entertainment to educational information, all of which contribute to their knowledge base. Children’s information needs can be categorized into two ways: First, they look for information for self satisfaction and second, they look for information which are imposed on them by their parents or teachers. The electronic sources of information for children are provided by online catalogs, electronic encyclopedias, search engines, online dictionaries and World Wide Web. Electronic information retrieval tools on World Wide Web require children to have increasingly sophisticated skill levels and knowledge of search systems. The searching technique is very different compared to print media. Currently most of the electronic information retrieval systems are designed for adult users, and give little or no consideration to the children. They also assume that young users can spell, type, read, navigate, compose queries, and/or select small objects on the information retrieval system. But children have different information needs, seeking behaviors and skill levels compared to adults. They find it very difficult to formulate a concrete query because of their smaller vocabularies and their imperfect command of subject terms. Children have not yet developed the skills that will enable them to retrieve a wide variety of terms from their memory. So they find it difficult the retrieve information from such tools.
Some researchers have developed digital libraries that are created for children. The interfaces and browsing technique are created such that children will find it very efficient and interesting. In this paper I will evaluate International Children’s Digital Library which is an information system created by the Human Computer Interaction Lab on University of Maryland, College Park.
Information needs:
The article ‘Reference services for children: information needs and wants in the public library’ gives an idea about the children’s information needs and wants in public library.
The main argument is the importance of educating the library staff to understand the different developmental stages of children which will help them to understand children’s information needs. Librarians described children as too short, too noisy, too uninterested and too many in the library. Children have to compete with adults in the library. The request of adults will be given more importance compared to that of children. But this should not be that case. There should be equality and the requests of children should be given equal importance if not more compared to the request of the adults. Most of the time there is a three-way reference interview between the librarian, child and the adult who is accompanying the child. The adult may acts as a mediator to help the child negotiate the question with the librarian. This will help the reference interview and the final results, as the vague query of the child gets a structure and the child gets what he wants.
In order to deliver better services to children, library professionals need to have an understanding of the environmental context in which children operate (Gross, 2000). It is very important to have knowledge of different developmental stages a child experiences and an understanding of how these stages affect information needs. The first development stage is between the ages of 2 to 7. Here the children are very egocentric. They view the world from their own perspective. In their own perspective, they are always right. They also lack communication skills to explain their information needs. The second stage of development includes children between ages 8 and 10. At this stage the children are capable of applying logical thinking for a given problem, but the thinking is grounded in a concrete object or a concrete experience. The third stage of development is between ages of 11 to 14. This is a stage where there is a rapid mental growth of children. Their maturity level increases and they develop various personal interests different from others. In order to assist children with their information needs, it is very important to have a good understanding of the different developmental stages of children.
There is a difference between the children’s information need and information wants. Many times the information needs are imposed by their parents or teachers. But this can’t always be termed as information want. They might not have any interest in the topic and they don’t really want that information, but they have to retrieve information as it is required. A child may need information for his personal satisfaction; such information retrieval is termed as information want.
In summary, Children are the future clients of library, so their information needs and wants should be given equal emphasis compared to those of adults. The information needs may range from knowing something about the snakes to knowing the solar system to knowing about computers and its tools. The information needs varies according to the personal interest of the child. It is very important to understand the developmental stages of children to understand their information needs and wants. They are often not able to articulate their needs because of the lack of communicational skill, so they must be accompanied by an adult who can act as a mediator who will be able to structure the vague queries of children. There is always a difference between the information needs and information wants for children. Information needs are most often imposed by adults and information needs are for self satisfactions.
Information Sources:
In today’s world most of the information is provided by internet. The number of children accessing internet increases day-by-day. They can get various kind of information, from entertainment to educational information. The various sources of electronic information are online encyclopedias, online dictionaries, search engines, websites, digital libraries and the list is every increasing. The online encyclopedias are very effective in delivering information to children as they uses images, audio and video to explain to concept more precisely. These types of encyclopedias are more effective compared to the printed version of encyclopedias as the browsing and searching techniques are more user-friendly and the use of audios/ videos makes it more interesting. The encyclopedias have search engines too. A few of the online encyclopedias have keyword searching and spelling checking mechanisms, which can be very helpful for children as they have weak communication skills and the queries are often vague. Wikipedia is one of such online encyclopedia. The demand for this online encyclopedia is increasing as it fulfills the information needs of children easily. But how accurate is the information which is retrieved from Wikipedia? This is a question which should be considered while referring Wikipedia for information. And at what age the children should access Wikipedia is also a very important factor to be considered.
Search engines also play an important role as information sources. They are easy to use and usually retrieve information very quickly. They also have features like advanced searches, keyword searches, spell checking, suggestion pop ups which helps the children to formulate a structured query. One of the popular search engines is Google. This search engine has become an important source of information in very short amount of time.
Digital libraries also play an important role as information source for children. These libraries are designed with interfaces for searching, browsing, reading, and sharing books. Large numbers of books are uploaded in the digital format in the digital libraries. You can find books on different topics and in different languages. These digital libraries have lots of benefits over the physical library and the actual book as it is a more efficient, easy to access, cost less amount of money. But some children do prefer physical building libraries too. It is also one of the important sources of information and which should not be neglected.
The people who are around children also act as information sources to children; these people can parents, teachers and friends. Asking is an important factor to gain information from others.
Information seeking behavior of children.
The predominant tools used in information seeking today by children are online catalogs, electronic databases, and the internet. The use of these tools can sometimes be challenging as they were designed for adults with little consideration of children. The information seeking behavior depends on various factors such as age, ability and socioeconomic levels. In Marchionini’s 1995 article, ‘‘Information-seeking is a special case of problem solving, it includes recognizing and interpreting the information problem, establishing a plan of search, conducting the search, evaluating the results, and if necessary iterating through the process again’’. Children always find it difficult to formulate a structured query as they have a small vocabulary and their imperfect command of subject terms.
According to Borgman’s 1984 article, following are the factors that can affect the information seeking behavior of children in electronic information retrieval system:
Typing and Keyboarding: Many information retrieval systems require users to enter specific commands or keywords to be searched. This keyboarding affects the information seeking behavior of children as they lack the appropriate keyboarding and typing skills.
Spellings: Keyword retrieval systems require accurate spellings.
Vocabulary: The vocabulary that children have is insufficient to understand certain terms which are used to retrieve information from information retrieval database. Children find it difficult to generate appropriate terminology to match the records in a database.
Alphabetizing - Most keyword systems require extensive browsing of alphabetical displays. This makes it difficult for children to retrieve information to satisfy their needs.
Boolean Logic: Children of various age groups find it difficult to formulate a Boolean query, which is required in large number of online catalogs, as well as other retrieval systems.
Results from Hirsh’s study state that domain knowledge has great influence on the success rate in searching tasks. Children with good domain knowledge are able to make relevant judgments and able to identify whether the retrieved information satisfies the query properly. Studies show that students do not use these retrieval systems according to their potentials. They prefer to scroll through retrieval lists constructed from a few queries rather than reformulating and refining their queries to attain a more precise list. Greater domain knowledge, practice and time spent using electronic systems are a few aspects of successful information retrieval. The reasons behind the failure of information retrieving are typing and keyboard errors, misspellings, vocabulary used, subject terminology.
Other studies also have discussed the searching behaviors of children. A study was conducted in order to understand Children's relevance criteria and information seeking on electronic resources. Interviews of students were conduct on two occasions at different stages of research. Field observations included students thinking aloud to explain their search processes. Students performed searches on an on-line catalog, an electronic encyclopedia, an electronic magazine index, and the World Wide Web. The result of this experiment show that students pay very little attention to the authority of the textual and graphical information they found. They spend larger portion of their time searching pictures. This research gives an understanding of how the children use the electronic resources and the relevance criteria they apply. This understanding is necessary for a better information retrieval system design.
Another study was conducted in order to find the differences and similarities in information seeking behavior of children and adults as Web users. This study analyzed and compared the overall patterns of children's and graduate students' Web activities, including searching moves, browsing moves, backtracking moves, looping moves, screen scrolling, target location and deviation moves, and the time they took to complete the task. Results were based on 14 children's Web sessions and nine graduate students' sessions. The results reveal that 89% of the graduate students found the correct answer to the search task as opposed to 50% of the children. The study concluded that both of the groups found the structure of keyword searching very poor and this was a major factor for the ‘breakdowns’ experienced by both of them. But the graduate students were able to recover from these breakdowns very effectively and quickly. The differences between them were in their ability to recover from 'breakdowns', navigational style, and focus on task.
A third study was conducted to observe the information seeking behavior of children on different types of tasks. The results of the study showed that there was variation in success rates on different search tasks. These variations were found because of the complexity of the tasks, the amount of domain knowledge children possessed, and the search methods used. The success rate of children was high when the search terms they used matched the vocabulary that the system used.
Another factor to consider is that children can become frustrated searchers for many reasons. Frustration is a feeling which often develops in children when they are not able to retrieve the information that they are seeking. Differences in image processing and motor skills are few of the factors that create frustration. Smaller target sizes (buttons and other widgets) can slow down the information searching process and can finally lead to frustration. Certain interaction styles and mouse types can also frustrate children. Children also find it difficult to coordinate the dragging and click the mouse buttons. Inkpen (2001) showed that children perform better and prefer interfaces with point-and-click interaction to those with drag and-drop style interaction.
Differences in searching and browsing skills can lead to frustrations. Many information retrieval systems have different information retrieval techniques. Children find it difficult to use and understand such variations in retrieval technique. Once they are able to get the result for their query, they are faced with another problem; problem of abundance of information. Abundance of relevant information can confuse children. To select the proper relevant solution for their question is difficult with so much retrieved information. The child who has specific domain knowledge is able to pick up a relevant solution for his question and the child who lacks specific knowledge gets confused with so many solutions and this can lead to frustration.
Information Models:
From the previous studies the model that best fits the information needs and behavior of children is Kuhlthau’s (1988) information search process model. This model addresses emotions involvement as well as activities. It is comprised of six stages:
1) Task initiation: Here the children are introduced to a task. The initial step would be to relate this task with prior knowledge and understanding. They will try to communicate with other during this stage. At this stage, feelings of uncertainty and apprehension predominate.
2) Topic selection: Here the topic to work on is selected. Emotions tend to polarize once a child reaches a decision. This can result optimism, but if they fail to reach a quick decision, levels of anxiety increases.
3) Prefocus exploration: Children at this stage often experience confusion and doubts in their attempt to make sense of the uncertainty found in the sources.
4) Focus formulation: This is a very important stage in the search process in which a specific area of investigation is identified. Optimism can come into picture as children gain confidence in their ability to complete the task.
5) Information collection: This involves extensive use of the resources. As more relevant information is collected, it increases the enthusiasm level of children to explore more about the topic in hand.
6) Search Closure: This is the final stage of the search process. Here the search is put to an end often as a result of lack of time or falling productivity. There can be mixed emotions at this stage. The child who is able to retrieve the relevant information is satisfied and if not then he is disappointed.
It is not always necessary that children follow all the steps that are mentioned in Kuhlthau’s (1988) information search process model. They may skip a few of the stages based on their skills and ability levels.
Based on my evaluation of the studies conducted on children’s information seeking behaviors, I offer this children’s information search model.
1) Information need or information want phase: Here a child is imposed with an information need by his parents or teachers. He can also seek for information for his/her personal satisfaction.
2) Consulting stage: Here child will try to talk with people that are around him to find the best source of information.
3) Topic selection: Once the child is clear about the source to be used, he can focus on the topic to be searched.
4) Component selection: This stage can comprise of making choices to select the relevant information component from variety of materials.
5) Accessing Information: This stage involves scrutiny of the component found. The entire content of the component may not be relevant for a particular task; only a particular part of the article, particular chapter of the book may be relevant. Much focused reading is required to collect the relevant information from the component. This is a stage where child might find difficulties as lots of concentration is required in this stage.
6) Conclusion and future action stage: This can be the last stage in the process. It also includes emotions like joy or frustrations. If the sufficient information has been located, the need may be regarded as satisfied and the search is put to end. On the other hand, if the need is not satisfied, the decision should be taken to either to conclude the search or continue it.
Existing information system designed for children: International children’s digital library.
The ICDL (www.icdlbooks.org) was initiated in 2002 with funding by the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The goals of the project include creating a digital library with a collection of 10,000 books in 100 different languages and collaborating with children in order to design an interface for searching, browsing, reading and sharing books. The project has two main audiences: children ages 3-13 and adults such as teachers and librarians who work with them, as well as international scholars who study children’s literature. The mission of the International Children’s Digital Library Foundation is to excite and inspire the world's children to become members of the global community – children who understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas -- by making the best in children's literature available online. They are aiming to reduce the cultural gap by providing children with books from other cultures.
The main objective of the ICDL is to provide free digital books in many different languages to children, teachers, librarians, parents, and scholars throughout the world via the Internet. The materials in the collection reflect similarities and differences in cultures, societies, interests, lifestyles, and priorities of peoples around the world. The goal is to help children to explore and understand the world in which they live and give them a better understanding and change their attitude towards books, libraries, reading, technology, and other countries and cultures.
The ICDL interface design is being created with the collaboration of children, so it will reduce the frustrations that children usually face with the interface design. It has implemented the use of pictorial icons for important interface tools for the children who cannot read. The icons are big in size and accompanied with textual description for children who can read. A single point-and-click action is implemented for navigation. The background color has a greenish theme which is soothing to eyes. The layout of the simple search page is very interesting as it has all navigational icons arranged in a rectangular shape with the result displayed at the center. This makes the information retrieval process very easy and quick. The vocabulary used in the search page is very easy to understand, they have reduced the use of complex words as much as possible.
ICDL supports a number of different tools for searching and browsing in an easily accessible HTML interface for information retrieval for children as well as adults. It has four types of searching tools implemented. They are; simple search, advanced search, location search and keyword search. Keyword search allows adults and older children to type in keywords that match different types of book metadata (e.g. title, author, category, plot summary). The Location search consists of a globe that users can spin to select books from, about, or set in a particular continent. Simple search consists of many large icons with textual description. This is a single point-and-click search tool. You have to just click on the icons of your choice in order to retrieve information. Advanced search gives a more structured searching experience as it has many filters which help users to retrieve the information very quickly. This search can be implemented only when you have a full understanding of the information you are trying to retrieve. It is designed mainly for adults and older children. Much time was spent in researching, organizing, and designing the categories of books for the category browser.
The results are displayed in two sections. On the left side, the cover of the book is displayed with number of pages in it. On the right side, the textual description about the book is displayed. The description consists of the summary, publication date, publisher, language and notes. Very large icons are used for the result which makes it easy for children to grasp the information easily and quickly.
There is very little interactivity designed in this system. The users can register with the digital libraries which will give them the privilege of selecting the language of choice, having a personal bookshelf and helping ICDL by giving feedbacks.
The online help section of ICDL is very effective. It has a FAQ section which gives answers to the general question which might arise for the first time user of the system. It has a help tool which gives descriptions on various topics from how to use the searching tools to how to create a personal bookshelf. The help topics are explained with the help of texts as well as pictures which will reduce the complexity level of the topic. It also has a contact us section, where you can send your questions and suggestions and they will get back to you.
After having an overview of the website, the only thing that is missing according to me is the interactivity part. There should be some interaction between the children which can help them to understand each other better and explore different cultures and traditions as this was the actual goal of the project. Online forums, email option and chat can encourage interactions between children.
Conclusion: Children are getting exposed to lots of information from variety of sources. The needs of children can be for self-satisfaction or they can be imposed by their parents or teachers. Now-a-days they have lots of choices for selecting an information source. The source which is becoming popular day-by-day is the World Wide Web. On the web there are many sources that provide with much information. Some of the online tools are designed with no or very little consideration of children, so they find it difficult to use these tools. They might need adult supervision too. Information seeking behavior includes lots of activities with emotions. Frustration and joy are few of the emotions related to information seeking behavior. The model that best fits the information needs and behavior of children is Kuhlthau’s (1988) information search process model. Human computer interaction lab in University of Maryland has introduced an information retrieval system i.e. ICDL project which is designed with the collaboration of children. This digital library has a very ethical motive as it aims to lessen the cultural differences and let children to explore the world they live. Such projects should be encouraged to increase the enthusiasm level of children to explore new things.
References:
Ahlberg, C. & Shneiderman, B. (1994). Visual information seeking: tight coupling of dynamic
query filters with starfield displays. Proc. of human factors in computing, 313-317.
Ahlberg, C., Williamson, C., & Shneiderman, B. (1992). Dynamic queries for information
exploration: an implementation and evaluation. Proc. of human factors in computing, 619-626.
Bederson, B., Hollan, J., Druin, A., et al. (1996). Local tools: an alternative to tool palettes. Proc.
of user interface software and technology, 169-170.
Borgman, C. (1986). The user’s mental model of an information retrieval system: an experiment
on a prototype online catalog. International journal of man-machine studies, 24, 47-64.
Borgman, C., Hirsh, S., Walter, A., & Gallagher, A. (1995). Children’s searching behavior on
browsing and keyword online catalogs: the science library catalog project. Journal of the
American society for information science and technology, 46 (9), 663-684.
Bilal, D. (2002). Children’s use of the Yahooligans! web search engine. III. cognitive and physical behaviors on fully self-generated tasks. Journal of the American society for information science and technology, 53 (2), 1170-1183.
Fitts, P.M. (1954). The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the
amplitude of movement. Journal of experimental psychology, 47, 381-391
Hirsh, S. (1999). Children’s relevance criteria and information seeking on electronic resources.
Journal of the American society for information science and technology, 50 (14), 1265-1283.
Inkpen, K. (2001). Drag-and-drop versus point-and-click mouse interaction styles for children.
ACM transactions on computer-human interactions, 8 (1), 1-33.
Kail, R. (1991). Developmental change in speed of processing during childhood and adolescence.
Psychological bulletin, 109 (3), 490-501.
Kuhlthau, C. (1988). Meeting the information needs of children and young adults: basing library
media programs on developmental states. Journal of youth services in libraries, Fall 1988, 51-57.
Marchionini, G. & Teague, J. (1987). Elementary students' use of electronic information services:
an exploratory study. Journal of research on computing in education 20(2), 139-155.
Bilal, D., Kirby, J. (2001) Differences and similarities in information seeking: children and adults as Web users. Information Processing & Management 2001 38 (5)649-670.
Quinn, E. (2004) Information Seeking Behavior of Students Using Technology: A Literature Review
ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) (1992b) Towards a quality service: goals, objectives and standards for public libraries in Australia, ALIA, Canberra
ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) (1999) 'Competencies for librarians serving children in public libraries' (revised edition). Journal of Youth Services in Libraries, vol 14 nº2, pp21-24.
Bishop, K & Salveggi, A 2001 'Responding to developmental stages in reference services to children' Public Libraries, vol 40 nº6, pp354-358.
Bolin, N & Dyson, L 2000 'Where have all the students and their questions gone? Children's use of public libraries to meet their information needs' School Library Media Activities Monthly, vol 16 nº5, pp25-26.
Bunge, CA 1994 'Responsive reference service: breaking down age barriers' School Library Journal, March, pp142-145.
Burton, MK (1998) 'Reference interview: strategies for children' North Carolina Libraries, vol 56, pp110-113.
Dixon, J (1996) 'Are we childproofing our public libraries? Identifying the barriers that limit library use by children' Public Libraries, vol 35 nº1, pp50-56
Gross, M (1995) 'The imposed query' RQ, vol 35 nº2, pp236-243.
Gross, M (2000) 'The imposed query and information services for children' Journal of Youth Services in Libraries, vol 13 nº2, pp10-17.
Kuhlthau, C (1986) 'Stages in child and adolescent development and implications for library instructional programs' in Information seeking: basing services on user's behaviours ed. J Varlejs. McFarland, Jefferson, NC