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Sequential or selective access? Young people's strategies for finding information in non-fiction books

Despite the prominence now given in schools to information skills, little research has investigated how young people actually locate information in books. This paper draws on the results of a recent qualitative investigation to explore their methods in this regard. Two forms of behaviour were identified. In some instances, material within books was accessed sequentially — the user started at the beginning of the volume and turned the pages individually, sometimes in search of a picture dealing with the specific matter of interest. On other occasions, selective access was favoured. Here informants usually, although not always, exploited a contents list or back-of-the-book index. Sometimes a certain youngster employed different approaches according to circumstances such as the topic of the need and the thickness of the book. Informants put forward a range of reasons for their use of either contents lists or indexes, but the rationale for exploiting either finding aid was often similar. The paper concludes by assessing the implications of the research results for the teaching of information skills. In particular, it highlights the importance of discussing with pupils the need to avoid expedient and inefficient methods of finding information.