1.
Librarians in the Digital Age:
Impact of Internet Adoption on
Search Habits
Jenny Emanuel
Digital Services & Reference Librarian
emanuelj@illinois.edu

2.
Purpose
Every generation has different values
regarding technology
How do librarians who are digital natives
search for information compared to
librarians who first got online after
obtaining their library degree?

3.
Participants
• Group A: Library degree holders and
students with at least 1 year of public
services reference experience. Must have
used online resources for research starting
in high school.
• Group B: Library degree holders with
public services experience who first
accessed online resources after
graduating library school

4.
Methods
• Ethnographic observations of different
librarian groups working a public
services desk
• Structured tasked based comparative
activities (ongoing)
• Survey of Millennial librarians (winter)

5.
Preliminary Results
• Group A:
– Showed some similar traits as
undergraduates
– Scanned quickly, and sometimes
overlooked important information
– Little tolerance of ambiguity
– Did use advanced search skills
– Often searched several places or
techniques at once

6.
Preliminary Results
• Group B:
– Considered print resources more often
– Went to Google last, but did use it
– Slower & more methodical
– Tolerated ambiguity and more accepting of
poor interfaces
– Did not explain what they were doing

7.
Next Steps
• Continue with comparative testing
• Millennial survey
• Look at other types of libraries,
librarians
• Trace patterns and find reasons