march08ff.indd


G a r y  P a t t i l l o  

Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@email. 
unc.edu 

Information literacy of the young 
A UK study of online information­seeking behavior among people born after 
1993 fi nds that the information literacy of young people has not improved with 
increasing access to technology. Furthermore, research shows that the speed of 
young people’s Web searching means that little time is spent evaluating infor­
mation for relevance, accuracy, or authority. Many young people do not have 
sophisticated mental maps of what the Internet is, often failing to appreciate that 
it is a collection of networked resources from divergent providers. 
School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London, “Information Behaviour of the Researcher 
of the Future,” January 11, 2008, www.ucl.ac.uk/slais/research/ciber/downloads/. Accessed February 8, 2008. 

Library usage 
The Pew Internet and American Life Project in partnership with the University 
of Illinois at Urbana­Champaign published survey results challenging the as­
sumption that libraries are losing relevance in the Internet age. Libraries drew 
visits by 53 percent of Americans in the past year. Compared with their elders, 
Generation Y members (age 18 to 30) were the most likely to use libraries for 
problem­solving information as well as general usage for any purpose. Young 
adults are the most likely to say they will use libraries in the future when they 
encounter information­related problems. Forty percent of Generation Y individu­
als say they would go to a library, compared with 20 percent of those above 
age 30 who say they would do so. 
Leigh Estabrook, Evans Witt, and Lee Rainie, “Information searches that solve problems: How people use the internet, 
libraries, and government agencies when they need help,” Pew Internet & American Life Project, December 30, 2007, 
www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/Pew_UI_LibrariesReport.pdf. Accessed February 8, 2008. 

Academic freedom? 
Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, says, 
“It’s broadly recognized, certainly by contingent faculty themselves, that they 
really don’t possess academic freedom in the way that the American academy 
has assumed for basically half a century. . .” Marc Bousquet, who interviewed 
Nelson writes, “Instead of intellectual freedom, many of the majority contingent 
faculty can be fired for contradicting the administration, can’t choose course texts 
or create syllabi, and are afraid to challenge students to think and learn, or raise 
controversial issues.” Nelson continues, “It’s a question of teaching in a climate 
of fear, versus teaching in a climate of freedom and honest interchange with 
your students... The American academy has shifted from a place where there is 
a great deal of reinforcement for intellectual independence for its faculty, to a 
place where there is very little.” 
Marc Bousquet, “Brainstorm: The Twilight of Academic Freedom?” Chronicle.com, February 11, 2008, chronicle.com 
/review/brainstorm/bousquet/the-twilight-of-academic-freedom. Accessed February 11, 2008. 

188C&RL News March 2008