Search systems and their features: What college students use to find and save information

College students have often been surveyed about their general information seeking behaviors. However, little has been done to explore what specific system features they use to find and save information when they are working on their real-life tasks. In this study, 32 college students were invited to an information interaction lab for a session in which they recalled a recently finished task and worked on a to-be-finished task using a computer in the lab. They were asked to complete questionnaires regarding what systems they used to finish their tasks and what features were helpful for searching and for saving information. Results showed that college students rely more heavily on the Internet sources than on library sources, even for their course related work. The study identified fourteen categories of system features helpful for information search and eight categories helpful for information saving. The findings have implications for designing systems that will better help people accomplish their tasks.