Personal Information Management Literacy in the Discourse of Youth

Abstract

Technological advances have led to a powerful, complex information landscape where managing one's personal information is increasingly challenging. Personal Information Management (PIM) is the field of study dedicated to the activities people engage in to organize their information so that items can be found again when needed. Searching for previously located information items is a common frustration, yet PIM is not present in the standards of Information Literacy (IL). Situating PIM Literacy within the sociocultural New Literacies theory, I explore how youth currently make sense of PIM as Discourse—what they communicate through multiple sign‐systems about their PIM practices. In this phenomenological mixed‐methods study, after an initial survey of secondary school participants, I conducted two phases of interviews—guided tours of participants’ personal information places and Information Places Map (IPM) interviews regarding their perceptions of PIM. This ongoing study addresses the dearth of PIM research with youth. Initial findings suggest the importance of information systems’ default sorting by recency, the potential benefits of instruction in file structures and archiving, and opportunities to address email overload. Evaluating student needs assists in the development of K‐12 PIM Literacy, a necessary competency for high‐school graduates to successfully participate in the digital age.