From: Eliza T. Dresang <edresang>
Date: Sun, 01 Nov 1998 08:22:24 -0500

Debby and others;

This is a partial reply to Debby's question about research. Here is a citation to a study that was published this past July studying children's
(nonlinear) searching on the internet. The researchers found that children were more successful at unstructured searching than at structured searching
(in other words, they were at ease with nonlinear browsing) -- finding useful and relevant information much of the time.

Schacter, J., G. K. W. K. Chung, and A.Dorr (1998) "Children's Internet Searching on Complex Problems: Performance and Process Analyses." Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49, 840P.

"Types of media" studies over the years have been notably disappointing because it is so difficult to control the various influences on what happens. And, often the results of various studies cancel each other out.

My unscientific response to this is that if the publishers didn't sell nonlinear books, they wouldn't publish them, and if readers didn't read them, they wouldn't sell. And since there are more and more "alternate formats" perhaps the proof is in the pudding?

Eliza D.


At 02:08 PM 10/30/98 00, you wrote:

*********************************************************************** Eliza T. Dresang, Associate Professor
                   School of Information Studies Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306!00 e-mail: edresang at mailer.fsu.edu Phone: 850 644 5877 (w) Phone: 850 224 1637 (h) FAX: 850 644 6253 (w) FAX: 850 224 1637 (h)
Received on Sun 01 Nov 1998 07:22:24 AM CST