VDM Shenton, A: Young People's Information Universes:

For several years in the 1990s, Andrew K. Shenton, the author of this book, worked as a teacher in a first school educating children from four to nine years of age. Coming to the post with a degree in library and information science, he was fascinated by how his pupils looked for information, yet he was often disconcerted by the fact that, despite his background, the children's thought processes when seeking information largely remained a mystery to him. As he pondered on this issue, other questions soon came to mind. How did their ideas, attitudes and behaviour differ from those of older youngsters? What situations inspired them to pursue information in the first place? And what exactly did they assume "information" to be when they heard the word? This book, a reproduction of his doctoral thesis, is essentially a record of Andrew's quest to find some answers.