How do children find information on different types of tasks? Children's use of the Science Library Catalog

CHILDREN ARE INCREASINGLY GAINING access to digitized information through many media-online catalogs, CD-ROMs, online services, and the Internet. Using these tools to find the desired information can be challenging, as research has shown with adult searchers of online catalogs and online databases, Searching these electronic information sources requires a different set of search strategies and skills than searching print sources and appears to be related to the type of information that is desired. This article examines some of the issues related to how elementary schoolchildren find information on different types of search tasks on information retrieval systems, focusing on their use of the Science Library Catalog. The study found that task complexity and the amount of knowledge children have about the topic influence their success in locating information in the Science Library Catalog.