Questions / instructions:
Year 4 students were asked about information on dinosaurs, year 8 students on Hong Kong. Imagine that you are going to do a project on dinosaurs/Hong Kong, and that you are going to search a library for information — a library that you haven't used before.

1. How would you find information about dinosaurs/Hong Kong in the library — describe to me what you would do?     Prompt: Are there any other ways you could find information about dinosaurs/Hong Kong in a library?

2. Have you ever used a computer catalogue in a library to find information?

3. Can you describe how you would search for information about dinosaurs/Hong Kong using a computer catalogue?

Commentary:
Year 8 students were more likely than year 4 students to use a catalogue or classification scheme to find information. Year 8 students were also substantially more likely than year 4 students to have used a computer catalogue system and to be able to describe steps in using it. There was little difference between year 8 students in experience of card catalogues and ideas for their use.