Learning and the digital library - Children and the Digital Library

Neuman's (1995b) national Delphi study related to learning and online and CD-ROM databases, for example, reported a number of findings that can readily be extrapolated to the wider world of the digital library. The Delphi panelists (twenty-five library. media specialists who are experts in using these electronic information resources with high school students) rated over 200 statements, including several that specifically, addressed the importance of using EIRs to enhance students' research skills. Ratings of two statements in particular highlight the importance the panelists assigned to this function: "A goal of a database curriculum should be to help students master the higher-order thinking skills involved in designing, conducting, and interpreting research" and "Database searching should be part of a formal research offering hat covers the nature and processes of research, various tools, etc." These two statements were among only six from the entire study that garnered final means of 4.0 -- "perfect scores" on the instrument's scale of 0 to 4. The panel's unanimous agreement with these statements as well as Neuman's summary or the full study underscores the importance of using EIRs as venues to foster higher-level learning: "The results confirm that the major issues related to schools' use of online and CD-ROM databases involve their role in students' development of the higher-order thinking skills necessary to plan, design, and conduct competent and credible research in the electronic information age" (Neuman, 1995b, p. 284).

Research from Information Studies: Students' Interactions

with Components of the Digital Library

Information studies research has also addressed the complexities of students' interactions with various kinds of electronic information resources in an attempt to identify successful and unsuccessful strategies and, further, to suggest design elements that might enhance students' use of these tools (Large et al., 1994a, 1994b; Liebscher & Marchionini, 1988; Marchionini, 1989; Marchionini & Teague, 1987; Neuman, 1993, 1995a, 1995b; Perzylo & Oliver, 1992; Small & Ferreira, 1994; Solomon, 1993, 1994). Marchionini's continuing focus on students' mental models as they use EIRs has led to important insights related to both elementary (Marchionini & Teague, 1987; Marchionini, 1989) and high-school (Liebscher & Marchionini, 1988) students' effective manipulation within these environments-and, by extension, within the digital library. Large et al.'s, Perzylo and Oliver's, Small and Ferreira's, and Solomon's work on elementary students' use of particular EIRs provides further insights that can be extended to learning and the digital library for this group, while Neuman's studies of high-school students' use of these resources suggests such insights for older students.

Elementary and Middle School Students and the Digital Library

Marchionini and Teague (1987) were among the first to explore elementary students' use of electronic information resources, and Marchionini's finding that children as young as third- and fourth-graders "could successfully use [Grolier's] full-text, electronic encyclopedia with minimal introductory training" (Marchionini, 1989, p. 64) is heartening to teachers and library media specialists charged with helping their students master the textual components of the digital library. Large et al. (1994a) reported similar findings with sixth graders, investigating these children's use of Compton's multimedia encyclopedia and noting that they were able not only to navigate the database effectively but also to determine which alternative path (menu, keyword searching, or title browsing) was most efficient for retrieving verbal information for a particular search task (judged as simple or complex according to the number of possible search terms). Marchionini's notation that the students' strategies in a text environment tended to be heuristic and interactive suggests that children have a natural affinity for the kind of exploratory and self-directed learning that is particularly well-suited to the digital library. Large et al.'s conclusion that students needed little training to navigate within a multimedia venue-one that included not only text but still images, sound, and video sequences-is also encouraging regarding students' independent learning in the digital library.