December 9, 2009 (New York, NY)- The proliferation of information and communication technologies has produced a distinctive new group of users and scholars dubbed ‘The Google Generation’: those users born after the advent of the Internet and unaccustomed to a world without its ubiquitous information dissemination. The Google Generation: Are ICT Innovations Changing Information-Seeking Behavior?, to be released in North America by Neal-Schuman Publishers on February 1, 2010, explores the reasons why and extent to which younger users’ information seeking behavior is tied to search engines, and the potential impact this new user community may have on academic librarianship, higher education, and the entire research community.

This timely new book provides an unprecedented, comprehensive analysis of the relationship between technology, age, and search behavior. Authors Barrie Gunter, Ian Rowlands, and David Nicholas identify the structure of the digital divide and the primary information search behaviors that set The Google Generation apart from its predecessors, namely Generations Y and X. They explain the vast differences between the pre-Internet and post-Internet media landscapes and the resultant effects on information access and distribution. The authors also detail how this younger generation’s rapid, widespread adoption of search engines, Web 2.0 tools, and social networks has created new forms of knowledge production, search, and acquisition, and how each has contributed to the emergence of digital scholarship. They conclude with important insights into the ever-growing convergence of technology, application, and consumption, and discuss the imminent roles that Google, the internet, and digital and social media will play in formal higher education.

The Google Generation: Are ICT Innovations Changing Information Seeking Behavior? is an important addition to the literature in the information and communication studies fields, and will be valuable to academic librarians, scholars, educators, and LIS and communications students.

The Google Generation: Are ICT Innovations Changing Information Seeking Behavior?
ISBN 978-1-84334-557-2.
Chandos Publishing 2010.
6 x 9. 200 pp. $95.00.

About the Authors
Barrie Gunter is Professor of Mass Communication and Head of the Department of Media Communications, University of Leicester, UK.
Ian Rowlands is a Reader in Scholarly Communications at the School of Library , Archive and Information Studies at UCL and an active member of the Centre for Publishing and CIBER.
David Nicholas is Professor of Information Studies and the Director of the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies at UCL. He is also the Director of the UCL Centre for Publishing and a Director of the CIBER research group.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers and Chandos Publishing
Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK. Neal-Schuman is a leading publisher of professional and academic titles in all areas of library and information studies. Since June 2009, Neal-Schuman has also been the exclusive North American distributor for titles from the United Kingdom’s Chandos Publishing, a division of Woodhead Publishing Limited. Chandos books are a leading, highly practical source of authoritative information for professionals and researchers worldwide.

For More Information and/or Cover Art
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