Project Information Literacy

Progress Report

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At a Glance

See PIL's "Photos from the Field," taken while we were at campus libraries collecting data for PIL's 2011 study about how today's students manage and use technology during crunch time.

Inception

2008.

Home

University of Washington's (UW) Information School (iSchool).

Goal

To understand how early adults conceptualize and operationalize research in the digital age.

Funding

During 2011, PIL's research is sponsored with generous gifts from Cengage Learning and Cable in the Classroom. Contributing funds from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to UW's iSchool also support PIL's ongoing work.

Recently Released

PIL published a new study about how college students manage technology and multitask while they are in the library during the final weeks of the term (72 pages, 6.1 MB). For eight weeks during the spring of 2011, the PIL Team conducted 560 interviews with student participants at 10 different U.S. colleges and universities (see a map of the sample).

In the Works

We have begun a new PIL study that asks "what happens to the information-seeking behavior of today's college students once they graduate?" The study will be conducted in collaboration with Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the UW's Information School, with support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Co-Directors

Dr. Alison J. Head, Research Scientist, UW iSchool and
Dr. Michael Eisenberg, Dean Emeritus and Professor, UW iSchool.