Constructing meaning through information artefacts

The paper presents and discusses results from the first round of empirical data collection within the framework of a three-year research project named Learning via the School Library. The research is set within a project comprising eight elementary and secondary schools in Sweden. The overall research question of the study focuses on how students construct meaning through the artefacts (books, digital information and pictures) that are offered via the school library. Data were collected through observations, interviews and a questionnaire in three classes (11-year-olds) during a 10-week assignment. Results indicate that students adopted a fact-finding approach, that they frequently used pictures in information sources and that they transported text/pictures from sources to their own reports. Students’ learning process was oriented towards procedure rather than content. The results raise questions about school libraries as cultural contexts for information seeking and use and about the possible reasons for and consequences of the findings that students develop an understanding of research as finding and copying text on a topic.