Dr. Mary Ann Harlan, assistant professor at the San Jose State University School of Information, shares her research on youth information practices. Dr. Harlan teaches master's-level courses in the iSchool's Master of Library and Information Science and Teacher Librarian programs.

1. Youth Information Practices
Dr. Mary Ann Harlan
Assistant Professor, School of Information
San José State University

2. Practices: A Definition
Actions Experiences

3. Information Practices: Youth Creators
Negotiating
Capacity
Negotiating
Control
Learning Community
Representing Knowledge
Negotiating
Aesthetic

4. Information Practices: Context
 Rural Areas
 65% of homes rely on basic wired services (Beede & Neville). Basic service allows for 3 MBPS
download speed and 768 kbps upload speed which is sufficient for basic services but not media
rich participation.
 39.7% of rural homes have access to broadband via cable, and 7.5% have access via optical
fiber
 Barriers to access in community
 Transportation
 Mentors

5. Information Practices: Rural (A Case
Study)
 9 schools – K12; 1000 students
 One to one in schools via Chromebooks
 One school operates on a generator
 Mixed grade level classrooms
 High level of poverty

6. Information Practices: Rural (A Case
Study)
 Participation Gap
 Instruction primarily in Information Access, Evaluation
 No instruction in Digital Citizenship; students learn from families and peers (with mixed results)
 No instruction in information creation
 Youth participation in creation is limited by service area (wi-fi from community center)
 Lack of mentors – community has strong values but only recently have the outlier areas received basic
broadband (2015); minimal teacher professional development

7. The Research Tangent: Girls and
Information
 Representations of Girlhood in Texts
 Girls and Identity
 Ophelia’s At Risk
 Buffy’s Kicking Butt
 Regina’s Being Mean
 Rory is Next Door
 Holly Goes Lightly
 Girls and Desire – Non-Fiction texts written for adults
 Girls and Sex – Young Adult Literature
 Virginity, Promiscuity, and Risk