Traditional use patterns? An analysis of high school students' use of libraries and information resources

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the main findings of a nation-wide survey of Danish high school students and their use of libraries and digital resources. The presentation of the main findings includes different organisations of the data in clusters and user types. This organisation and analysis gives indications of the factors that influence the high school students' use of libraries and digital resources and it also explains the preferences and expectations the students have. Design/methodology/approach - The study was conducted as a nation-wide online survey to a sample of high schools in Denmark. The data collection was conducted in several steps. A sample of high schools was selected and asked if they would accept the opportunity to participate in the study. If they agreed, the director or a person appointed by the director selected two to three classes of students. The students received a link to the online questionnaire and completed it during a class hour. The result was 998 usable and valid responses. There was no way to secure a true random sample, but the sample is very much like the student population as it is registered in statistical yearbooks in relation to characteristics such as type of high school, gender and geographical distribution. Findings - The findings indicate that traditional demographic factors alone cannot explain all of the variability in the students' information behaviour. Type of high school, gender and study year influence the use of libraries and digital resources but it also becomes clear that perceptions of the study and study preferences influence the information behaviour. It is also indicated that a correlation exists between the amount of use of libraries and digital resources. Further, it is indicated that high school students possess a rather traditional view of the importance of the different services and facilities offered by libraries. Research limitations/implications - The limitations of the research are inherent in the methodology. First of all, one only gets answers in relation to the stated questions and statements. This implies that the students' use of other information grounds, horizons, social technologies are omitted from the study. It is probably valid to argue that the data collection methods bias the results in a "conservative" way. Originality/value - The research is the first nationwide investigation into different aspects of high school students' use of libraries and information resources in Denmark.