Information seeking behaviour of national minorities’ secondary school students for scientific research purposes

Internet in Latvia (a country in the Baltic region) became available for the wider public in the beginning of the 21st century. Online news, reference type information and social networks are everyday life necessities of modern individuals in Latvia. Current Latvian schoolchildren were born and raised in the Internet era, and these children are potential researchers. That is why it is so important to understand how modern schoolchildren conduct complex information searching processes for research purposes, what skills they possess, what problems they face and if they use library products and services. The case study was made in April, 2012 with the purpose of determining national minority secondary school students’ information seeking behaviour during the scientific research process: what information channels and resources they use and in what language this information is. Carol Collier Kuhlthau’s model of Information Search Process was chosen as a theoretical framework for this study. Complete study includes the results of six interviews with the schoolchildren who are doing their research on different IT topics and the results of the questionnaire completed by 119 secondary school students who did their research projects on different topics. This case study consists of the key findings from the interviews, and these interviews have revealed that schoolchildren pay great attention to the information search process.