Tech Report HCIL-2007-02

Druin, A., Weeks, A., Massey, S., Bederson, B. (January 2007)
Children's Interests and Concerns when using the International Children's Digital Library: A Four Country Case Study
Published as Druin, A., Weeks, A., Massey, S., & Bederson, B. B. (2007) Children’s Interests and Concerns When Using the International Children’s Digital Library: A four country case study, Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL 2007), 167-176. Available in the ACM Digital Library [Published Version]
HCIL-2007-02

This paper presents a case study of 12 children who used the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) over four years and live in one of four countries: Germany, Honduras, New Zealand, and the United States. By conducting interviews and classroom observations, along with collecting drawings, book reviews, and work samples, this study describes how these children were interested in books, libraries, technology and the world around them. Findings from this study include: these young people increased the variety of books they read online; still preferred physical interactions with books for reading, but appreciated the searching tools online; still valued their physical libraries as spaces for social interaction and reading; showed increased reading motivation; and showed interest in exploring different cultures.