In this presentation for ASERL librarians, researcher Andrew Asher describes the data he and colleagues from two universities to examine how students utilize various search and discovery systems (including EBSCO Discovery Service, Summon, Google, and Google Scholar) to identify and locate information for academic assignments. Moving beyond user needs analysis, this presentation also focused on how these tools affect students’ approaches to information evaluation and evaluates how search tools may be performing an epistemic function within students’ research practices. Based on these conclusions, this presentation offers possibilities for modifying search tools to respond to students’ research practices. (These findings have been published in "College & Research Libraries" -- see the full text at: crl.acrl.org/content/74/5/464.full.pdf)
