RB210: The New Knowledge Worker

As high school and college students transition into a knowledge economy they face both advantages and challenges with how they find information and engage with co-workers as teammates.

As a recent study of US employers and recent college graduates discovered, some young hires are pretty good at finding out information online and through social networks, but experience significant difficulty with traditional methods of finding answers — going through bound reports, picking up the phone, or researching with groups.

The study, How College Graduates Solve Information Problems Once They Join the Workplace, was conducted by Project Information Literacy, and part of a series of studies supported by the Berkman Center and the Institute for Museum and Library Services to discover how research behavior is changing.

David Weinberger spoke with Berkman Fellow and director of Project Information Literacy Alison Head about her research.