Information search and use in higher learning

Abstract

This study examined information search and use in higher learning as experienced by lecturers, librarians and teachers. This study employed a qualitative study and used semi-structured interviews to collect data. 31 lecturers, librarians and students who participated in five student information skills programs in a Malaysian public university involved in the study as research participants. Data analysis showed information search and use in higher learning is part of a bigger process, known as knowledge building process. Central to the process is six stages of students’ identification of knowledge frontiers, and access, evaluate, and use of information from multiple sources to construct, articulate and validate new understanding and its mediating artefacts. While the study demonstrated that the process involves students’ cognitive, feelings, and actions, it acknowledged that the process occurs within several immediate contexts such as classroom learning, informal group study, library and knowledge discipline. Following the findings, there is a need for lecturers and librarians to mediate students’ interaction with members, experts, practitioners, and various complex objects and symbols involved within the immediate contexts as ways to facilitate knowledge building process in higher learning.