Information Seeking Pattern and "Googlization" of Information: the Issues Facing Libraries

With the advent of the information revolution and the shear bulk of information that are freely available on the web, many of our user's perception of information is that if it is not easily accessible, it's not worth the effort. It is therefore imperative that librarians and information providers find out why this preference is so dominant especially among undergraduate students and use this information in a way to design parallel information systems. This paper presents the results of two case studies and identify (1) information-seeking behaviors of life sciences and chemistry students in the fast-paced digital environment and what is meant by "cool" as it relates to information retrieval, and (2) users' preferences for scholarly material via traditional electronic databases and search engines, especially Google Scholar. In so doing, it presents the findings of the undergraduate students' preferences and discuss implications for library instruction, the design of web-pages and offerings of databases that would encourage lifelong learning skills.