I am pleased to announce the latest title in Morgan & Claypool’s series on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services :

Children’s Internet Search: Using Roles to Understand Children’s Search Behavior

Elizabeth Foss, University of Maryland, College Park

Allison Druin, University of Maryland, College Park

Paperback ISBN: 9781608454433, $40.00
eBook ISBN: 9781608454440
September 2014, 106 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.2200/S00591ED1V01Y201408ICR034

Abstract:

Searching the Internet and the ability to competently use search engines are increasingly becoming an important part of children’s daily lives. Whether mobile or at home, children use search interfaces to explore personal interests, complete academic assignments, and have social interaction. However, engaging with search also means engaging with an ever-changing and evolving search landscape. There are continual software updates, multiple devices used to search (e.g., phones, tablets), an increasing use of social media, and constantly updated Internet content. For young searchers, this can require infinite adaptability or mean being hopelessly confused.

This book offers a perspective centered on children’s search experiences as a whole instead of thinking of search as a process with separate and potentially problematic steps. Reading the prior literature with a child-centered view of search reveals that children have been remarkably consistent over time as searchers, displaying the same search strategies regardless of the landscape of search. However, no research has synthesized these consistent patterns in children’s search across the literature, and only recently have these patterns been uncovered as distinct search roles, or searcher types. Based on a four-year longitudinal study on children’s search experiences, this book weaves together the disparate evidence in the literature through the use of 9 search roles for children ages 7-15. The search role framework has a distinct advantage because it encourages adult stakeholders to design children’s search tools to support and educate children at their existing levels of search strength and deficit, rather than expecting children to adapt to a transient search landscape.

Series: Synthesis Series on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services

Series Editor: Gary Marchionini, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.morganclaypool.com/toc/icr/1/1

Use of this book as a course text is encouraged, and the texts may be downloaded without restriction by members of institutions that have licensed accessed to the Synthesis Digital Library of Engineering and Computer Science or after a one-time fee of $20.00 each by members of non-licensed schools. To find out whether your institution is licensed, visit <http://www.morganclaypool.com/page/licensed> or follow the links above and attempt to download the PDF. Additional information about Synthesis can be found through the following links or by contacting me directly.

This book can also be purchased in print from Amazon and other booksellers worldwide.

Amazon URL: http://amzn.to/1BKbhdd

Individual subscriptions to Synthesis are available for just $99.00 per year. This subscription will provide individuals with unrestricted access to all Synthesis titles: http://www.morganclaypool.com/page/subscribe

Available titles and subject areas:

http://www.morganclaypool.com/page/browseLbS.jsp

Information for librarians, including pricing and license:

http://www.morganclaypool.com/page/librarian_info

Please contact [log in to unmask] to request your desk copy

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Shane Clyburn
Marketing Associate
Morgan & Claypool Publishers
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Fax: 415.785.2507

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