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The study, published tomorrow, warns that libraries must move with the digital times or risk becoming irrelevant. … The study was led by Dr Ian Rowlands [¹û¶³Ó°Ôº School of Library, Archive & Information Studies]. …

It is the first attempt in the UK to investigate claims that the "Google generation" - people born after 1993 into a world dominated by the internet - uses electronic information sources differently from older generations. …

"Children (especially) tend to make very narrow relevance judgments by considering the presence or absence of words exactly describing the search topic. As a result, they miss many relevant documents and end up repeating searches. Information seeking tends to stop at the point at which articles are found and printed, especially for younger users, with little regard to the document content." …

Rowlands says children born after the big bang of the web lack a mental map of the information landscape, which could be affecting their ability to search for and evaluate information.

"As a kid, I grew up spending hours in the central reference library in Plymouth. This helped me form a clear understanding of the information landscape because of the physical layout of the library, and the appearance of materials. You get a sense of how big one collection is compared to another. Dictionaries, maps and official statistics all have a specific place, feel and appearance in the library and this helped me understand the concept of these sources of information and how to use them," he says. …

Rowlands calls on the government to push information literacy up its agenda. He says intervention to improve information skills is urgently needed at school level.

Libraries also need to improve awareness of and simplify the huge array of electronic and digital resources they offer, Rowlands adds. Libraries are not keeping up with the demands of students and researchers for services that are integrated and consistent with their wider internet experience such as Google, the study says. Information consumers do not necessarily use services in the way libraries assume, and a one-size-fits-all policy towards the design of library systems will not be effective. The study recommends that libraries invest more in monitoring and evaluating the way people use their services, to ensure they stay relevant and to allow libraries to argue against static or declining budgets. …