Abstract

This study explored the range of undergraduate students’ natural language preferences for library resources when shown verbal and visual representations of those resources. The results indicate little consensus for preferred language although participants generally preferred natural language over library jargon. The majority of participants did not use the same language to describe a resource between the visual and verbal exercises. Furthermore, prior library instruction had no meaningful effect on participants’ language preferences. More research is needed to explore the significance of recurring library instruction on students’ language preferences and if these language preferences impact their ability to complete library research-based tasks.

摘要

本研究探讨了本科生在展示图书馆资源的语言和视觉表示时对自然语言的偏好范围。结果表明，对于首选语言几乎没有共识，尽管参与者通常更喜欢自然语言而不是图书馆术语。大多数参与者没有使用相同的语言来描述视觉和口头练习之间的资源。此外，先前的图书馆教学对参与者的语言偏好没有有意义的影响。需要更多的研究来探索图书馆重复教学对学生语言偏好的重要性，以及这些语言偏好是否会影响他们完成图书馆研究任务的能力。