I Found It on the Internet: Come of Age Online by Frances Jacobson Jacobson Harris

From the Publisher

"Recognizing that high-tech teens are still teens, author and educator Jacobson draws together tools for reflection, along with the latest research and practical solutions. In this authoritative guide, she helps library colleagues understand and address issues relating to youth and technology, answering key questions to help instill appropriate values in teens as they travel the cyber-landscape." "Jacobson shares practical guidance for dealing with the thornier issues of hacking, cheating, privacy, harassment, and access to inappropriate content. She also provides tips on how libraries can incorporate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into new policies for teen-friendly tech spaces." Presenting thoughtful and commonsense solutions for high school, middle school, and public youth librarians, I Found It on the Internet is a proactive guide that addresses challenging technological issues facing teens and the librarians who serve them.

Mary K. Chelton - VOYA

Unlike many other library and information studies professional authors, Harris understands that for teenagers, technology is where information and communication meet with consequences, both good and bad and often unintended, for both the teens and the library. She points out that most youth information-seeking research has studied formal information systems for schoolwork but has little examined teenagers' use of informal systems and the way in which communication technologies bridge the gap between them for teenagers. Libraries prohibit or seriously ration their use without taking this merged bridging function into account, deeming such uses frivolous. Instead Harris coins the acronym "ICTs" for merged information and communication technologies, calling these "social information spaces" or "environments in which people use communication technology to access information, manipulate it, transform it, and exchange it." She then proceeds to discuss the ones that have the most influence on teenage life, taking each in turn and giving examples of how teenagers use them. Examples include blogs and online diaries, e-mail, instant messaging, usenet and message boards, electronic discussion lists, chat rooms, peer-to-peer file sharing, Web-based homework help sites, and interactive "Ask an Expert" services. Among the consequences discussed are the decline of civil discourse, identity formation and self-expression, a feeling of independence, keeping parents at bay, getting there without going anywhere, joining a community and socializing, inadvertent loss of privacy and conflict, collaboration and gaming, cheating, plagiarism, hacking, harassment and bullying, and access to inappropriate content,among others. Harris concludes with a teaching and learning agenda to help youth behave well online and be able to evaluate what they find, and discusses how traditional library service might adapt to the existence of this new environment in adolescents' lives. Harris provides by far the best book on technology and adolescents that this reviewer has read to date. It is well-grounded in research (including my own), good practice, and an innate but highly informed understanding of adolescent development. 2005, ALA Editions, 160p.; Index. Illus. Biblio., $35. Ages adult professional.

Francisca Goldsmith - KLIATT

As a longtime school librarian and researcher, Harris has accrued both experience with and insight into the social, academic, and ethical effects of technology's evolutionary role among youth. Only a few years ago, librarians and teachers were concerned simply with information seeking and gathering methods that have been altered by the Web's proliferation and ubiquity. Added to that now is the boom in communication technology in which YAs, and even some children, have become regular, frequent and habitual participants. Harris casts all her knowledge and many of the exploratory forays she's made into working to understand the causes and effects of online use into a book that is exceptionally readable. She includes analytical discussion, classroom-derived research, examples of exercises, and theories of education, communication, and adolescent development in a whole that makes compelling reading for experienced librarians, new teachers, library school students, and others concerned with societal changes stemming from information and communication technology. Content and behavior are just two—but highly important—areas she broaches. In addition, she provides examinations of collaborative environments, perceived parental ignorance, and the integration of good technology pedagogy into the school curriculum. This is a must for all library collections and highly recommended as curriculum material for teaching and library science programs. KLIATT Codes: P*—Exceptional book. 2005, American Library Association, 161p. illus. notes. index., Ages adult.

School Library Journal

Except for its disappointingly dull cover art, this is a bright, perceptive analysis of the fundamental differences in how teens (for whom the Internet is a primary language) and adults (who will always be second-language learners) view information and communication. It is illuminating, challenging, and frightening. The book opens with a description of the current state of library affairs, wherein information retrieval has become primarily a computerized event and the collision between information technology and communication technology has literally forged a new, merged reality that Harris terms ICT (information community technology). The second section, "Consequences," examines the results of this queasy quasi-marriage. The final section addresses how library professionals whose jobs, ironically, are often sacrificed at the altar of the computer monitor must take an unprecedented, powerful, and prominent position as instructional Yodas. They can wisely guide learners through a labyrinth more complicated, more seductive, more dangerous, and more potentially valuable than anything they have experienced to date. Harris will leave librarians spellbound, feeling insecure certainly, but nonetheless unequivocally called to arms as the next generation's best hope for learning to operate with intelligence and wisdom in a potential morass of excess.-Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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• Table of Contents

Table of Contents