Understanding emotions to empower the Net generation

Abstract

In my address, I will be talking about a pivotal need for librarians and information professionals to understand information users’ emotions to truly empower the Net Generation to educate them as informed citizens in the future. For this purpose, various characteristics of the Net generation reported in the literature will be introduced first. Subsequently, I will introduce the environment where higher education and academic libraries are situated currently, and the challenges and opportunities they are meeting now. Educators in higher education see the importance of teaching information literacy to help students prepare for their uncertain futures, and thus teaching critical thinking and critical use of information resources and services have become pivotal in the process. Yet, there are many indications that suggest many barriers for the Net Generation to access needed quality information. Among the many barriers that hamper effective information access, I will draw attention to the barriers caused by irrelevant emotions in particular, library anxiety. I will be sharing the research findings from recent studies, including my mixed-methods study of library anxiety and critical thinking dispositions among college students. These reports will demonstrate how both positive and negative emotions play a vital role throughout the information search and use process. Finally, I will share both theoretical and practical implications drawn from the empirical findings on emotions within the frameworks of affective information behavior and information literacy.