Paper details
Mobile Media and “Google Generation”: Significance and Challenges for Information Professionals
Author
Heike vom Orde, Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation -IZI-, Germany
Documents to download
Abstract
The „Google Generation“ is a target group librarians often struggle and fail to reach with their services and activities. Nowadays, in the media landscapes of young people mobile media rank first in media consumption and as the most highly valued technology. Recent figures show that especially smartphones and tablet computers are very popular with children and adolescents. The demand for mobile media is constantly increasing as well as the mobile use of the internet. In a current prognosis, Microsoft assumes that mobile use of the Internet with smartphones and tablet PCs will overtake Internet use on desktop PCs from 2014 worldwide. Given these rapid changes in the media worlds of so-called „Google Generation:, it is worth asking for information professionals what opportunities mobile media might offer to attract young people to libraries. This paper explores the significance of developing mobile library services and the challenges ahead for understanding and appreciating mobile librarianship. The focus will be on the pedagogical opportunities mobile technology enables: Learning with iPads or smartphones is at present one of the most-discussed developments in the area of e-learning. Latest research results of young people’s use of mobile media and its success both in formal and informal learning contexts provide a number of starting points for information professionals to develop future services and activities in this field. The inherent active nature of mobile media might show the library a way of becoming more relevant to "Google Generation“ users.
Author's professional CV
Heike vom Orde is head of documentation at the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television (IZI), an international documentation and research centre on children’s, youth and educational TV in Munich, Germany. She is a standing committee member of the IFLA section „Information Literacy“, writes articles and gives presentations on topics of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) and youth media research. Selected presentations: IFLA annual conferences 2003–2012; Internet Librarian International 2005 (London); IASL 2006 (Lisbon); SIDOC 2007 (Palma de Mallorca); IASA 2008 (Sydney); INFORUM 2011 (Prague); UNESCO Conference „Media and Information Literacy for Knowledge Societies“ 2012 (Moscow)
