Information access and retrieval with hypermedia information systems

Students' success with interactive information systems (IIS) such as those found in many CD‐ROM applications depends to large degree on their capacity accurately to choose and apply search strategies in response to information needs. IIS systems provide many ways to retrieve information, with some methods being more efficient and effective than others. The purpose of this study was to investigate the search strategies employed by novice users of an IIS system and to analyse the problems and issues that were impediments to successful use. A class of 12 year old students was instructed in the use of an electronic encyclopaedia. The students used the encyclopaedia as an information source for individual projects and on completion their information skills tested and analysed. The study found that students tended to employ inefficient search strategies and experienced difficulty in creating search requests for information related problems.