Searching : Information Literacy for the ' Real World ' ?

Meeting the 'Real World' information needs of today's students provides a challenge to university libraries. For many libraries part of the solution is the introduction of a cross database searching portal. But these systems raise questions about the quality of information obtained and whether they contribute to the long term information literacy development of students. Examining the process of cross database searching in the light of the Information Literacy Framework leads to conclusions which may assist librarians in ensuring that the introduction of such systems supports the information literacy development of students. The 'Real World' of today's university student The 'Real World' of university students today is very different from that of their predecessors / students twenty or thirty years ago. Students in postmodern society exhibit traits of consumerism, superficiality and knowledge fragmentation (Koh, 2003). Decreasing government funding means that students are paying higher fees than ever before. In the 'free market' environment education is increasingly seen as a commodity purchased by consumers from providers. Many students are undertaking part time postgraduate degrees to advance their careers, often paying full fees. Even full time students are likely to have paid employment, whether to pay HECS, course fees and basic living expenses, or to support desired lifestyles. Gerrity, Lyman and Tallent (2002) develop the ideas of Davis and Meyer (1998) to argue that libraries today operate in a state of ‘blur’, in which traditional boundaries between services and products, academic and commercial information, and roles of staff are blurred. Students expect to be able to use any computer for any function and have access to resources from anywhere ‘24x7’. Boundaries between work, home and study are less clear with more students studying via ‘flexible delivery’. In this customer driven environment, students don't see why they should have to distinguish between information about an item and the item itself, or between individual information sources themselves. Universities rely on international students for a large part of their income, and these students face additional burdens of family expectations, separation from family and language barriers All these factors tend to favour a superficial learning approach where the game is to pass, get high marks and earn a 'meal ticket', rather than to learn, grow, develop or contribute to knowledge These characteristics are similar to those of 'Fast surfers' as identified by Heinstrom (Heinström, 2002) in her analysis of information seeking behaviour among Swedish masters students. They are contrasted with 'Broad scanners' and 'Deep divers' by their