Using artefacts to investigate children's information seeking experiences

Abstract

Pieces of work or "artefacts" produced by children in the form of posters were used in a semi-structured interview to gain insights into children's experience of information seeking in a classroom setting. By referring to information on the poster, children were able to articulate their perceptions of the task, evaluate their success in completing it and reveal which aspects of the task they preferred doing. They were able to say where, and in some cases how information had been found but were generally less able to explain why they had chosen particular pieces of information. The paper concludes that artefacts such as posters can provide a useful entry point for interviewing children about their information behaviour, avoiding some of the known challenges in this.