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Using a variety of evidence this paper aims to develop the concept of “inferential information‐seeking”. The term itself is new and the type of phenomena it addresses has been the subject of limited attention.

The author considers inferential information‐seeking in the context of three distinct scenarios, each of which has come to the writer's attention through either the literature or his own direct experience.

Exploration of the identified instances of inferential information‐seeking reveals that the strategy is a circuitous one employed by individuals when faced with barriers that impede their use of more obvious methods of finding information. Substantial mental effort may be required on the user's part to exploit the information elicited in such a way as to satisfy the information need stimulating the action.

The notion of inferential information‐seeking postulated here is based on a very small number of cases, none of which has come to light in research specially undertaken to investigate the phenomenon.

Even though knowledge of inferential information‐seeking is still in its infancy, it would appear appropriate to incorporate some provision for it in the teaching of information literacy.

Intended for information practitioners and academics alike, the paper synthesizes a new concept through examination of actual information‐seeking episodes with reference to a wide‐ranging body of source material. An understanding of inferential information‐seeking offers the potential to increase our comprehension of how individuals find information, as well as to add a further dimension to information literacy instruction.

The problems experienced by young people when looking for information are significantly under‐researched and this paper aims to attempt to expand the fragmented knowledge base. It concentrates on action taken by English high schoolers to meet academic information needs.

The work draws on qualitative data elicited via an online questionnaire administered in October and November 2006. Thirty‐five participants contributed data on the problems they had encountered.

Inductive coding of the data revealed that over 20 individual problems were apparent. The most frequently mentioned was an inability to locate the desired information. Some of the other issues related to information use, rather than information‐seeking.

The project was small scale, with data collected from pupils in only one school. It relied solely on self‐reported data and insight into information‐seeking problems was gained purely in terms of behaviour to satisfy academic information needs. A future project may consider issues that develop when youngsters are intent on meeting leisure‐oriented needs.

The findings have implications for the improvement of Web filters and the teaching of information skills, especially with respect to the effective use of search engines and the training of learners in information‐seeking methods beyond the use of the Internet.

The paper is unusual in exploring information‐seeking problems entirely from the perspective of information users. It is envisaged that the research will be of use to academics interested in information behaviour, teachers in secondary schools and information professionals who work with young people.

In this paper we report on the approach we have developed and the lessons we have learned in an implementation of the monitoring and control layer for continuous monitoring of business process controls (CMBPC) in the US internal IT audit department of Siemens Corporation. The architecture developed by us implements a completely independent CMBPC system running on top of Siemens’ own enterprise information system which has read-only interaction with the application tier of the enterprise system. Among our key conclusions is that “formalizability” of audit procedures and audit judgment is grossly underestimated. Additionally, while cost savings and expedience force the implementation to closely follow the existing and approved internal audit program, a certain level of reengineering of audit processes is inevitable due to the necessity to separate formalizable and non-formalizable parts of the program. Our study identifies the management of audit alarms and the prevention of the alarm floods as critical tasks in the CMBPC implementation process. We develop an approach to solving these problems utilizing the hierarchical structure of alarms and the role-based approach to assigning alarm destinations. We also discuss the content of the audit trail of CMBPC.

This study aims to explore young children’s information practices within the context of their individual interests, examining children’s interest-related information activities, challenges encountered and enablers received.

Participants included 18 children between five and seven years of age and their parents. Data were collected using a multi-stage participatory approach. Children shared their experiences via a book discussion, poster activity, participant-generated photography and a photo-elicitation interview. Parents provided information about family demographics and their perceptions of their children’s individual interests, information practices and digital media use via questionnaires. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method.

Young children seek information via print and digital objects, other people and experiences, and use information by applying it to their activities and sharing information with others. Challenges to information activities include children’s own capabilities and skills, constraints of information sources and parental restrictions on their activities. Enablers include affordances of technology and parental support.

This study takes a holistic approach to understanding young children’s perspectives of their information activities, examining information use and sharing activities in addition to information seeking.

This study aims to explore the perceptions and expectations of graduate research students regarding reference and information services. The purpose was also to determine the information seeking and library usage patterns of the respondents.

The qualitative research design was used to conduct this study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 18 research scholars enrolled at the University of the Punjab in three main domains of knowledge: sciences, social sciences and humanities. The interviews were verbatim transcribed and analyzed using a thematic approach.

The findings revealed that the graduate research students had hardly any idea of reference and information services. Their perceptions of the services were vague. Due to this lack of understanding, they would not expect an important role of the library professionals in their research activities except providing access to physical or online information sources. The study recommends redesigning of reference and information services, as well as their promotion among communities.

Being qualitative in approach, the findings are based on the perceptions and expectations of a limited number of researchers. However, libraries and institutions may use the findings for assessment of their services.

Public and university libraries in the developing countries like Pakistan can use the insight for developing user-focused reference and information services and create aggressive awareness strategies about the services offered. The research-related information services can enhance the quality of research output.

The public image of information professionals can be enhanced by meeting the expectations of modern information seekers.

The paper is the first one in the context of a developing country on the subject of reference and information services. The users' perspectives have hardly been addressed in a qualitative manner. The findings reveal interesting aspects of reference and information services.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

The findings provide information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Recent studies show that humans engage in multitasking information behaviors, often in libraries, as they seek and search for information on more than one information task. Multitasking information behaviors may consist of library search and use behaviors, or database or Web search sessions on multiple information tasks. However, few human information behavior models of seeking, searching or use, or library use models, include considerations of multitasking information behavior. This paper reports results from a case study exploring multitasking information behavior by an information seeker in a public library using diary, observation and interview data collection techniques. The information seeker sought information on four unrelated personal information tasks during two public library visits. Findings include a taxonomy of information behaviors; a sequential flowchart of the information seeker's complex and iterative processes, including multitasking information behavior, electronic searches, physical library searches, serendipitous browsing, and successive searches; and that the information seeker engaged in a process of 17 information task switches over two library visits. A model of information multitasking and information task switching is presented. Implications for library services and bibliographic instruction are also discussed.