The contemporary information context is paradoxically antipathetic to the traditional information professions, and there are indications that, in order to survive, they will need to undergo radical transformation. This would require a re-conceptualisation of the "objects" of their knowledge domain, the entities and phenomena which comprise it, and the relationships between these entities (with particular reference to the concept of "information" itself). The term "information" is used in a multitude of contexts in the so called "Information Society", and this overuse has undermined the disciplinary and professional position of the information professions: the site of information work is contested. Furthermore, the changing context of the Information Society has challenged and diminished the essential task of the information professions: to deal with society's information problems and needs, as distinguished from the provision of information and communication technologies. In addition, access to information itself is contested as it is increasingly mediated by technology. The aim of this work is to develop a conceptual model by stabilising the defining concepts and constructs of information work, so that the social objectives and praxis of the field are elucidated and supported. The study proposes that such a theoretical framework could support an emergent metacommunity of information professionals.

The contemporary information context is paradoxically antipathetic to the traditional information professions, and there are indications that, in order to survive, they will need to undergo radical transformation. This would require a re-conceptualisation of the "objects" of their knowledge domain, the entities and phenomena which comprise it, and the relationships between these entities (with particular reference to the concept of "information" itself). The term "information" is used in a multitude of contexts in the so called "Information Society", and this overuse has undermined the disciplinary and professional position of the information professions: the site of information work is contested. Furthermore, the changing context of the Information Society has challenged and diminished the essential task of the information professions: to deal with society's information problems and needs, as distinguished from the provision of information and communication technologies. In addition, access to information itself is contested as it is increasingly mediated by technology. The aim of this work is to develop a conceptual model by stabilising the defining concepts and constructs of information work, so that the social objectives and praxis of the field are elucidated and supported. The study proposes that such a theoretical framework could support an emergent metacommunity of information professionals.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to explore the information literacy of newly arrived people and to obtain knowledge about how they are looking for important information. The research questions are as follows: How do newly arrived people access information in the new society? What strategies do they use to overcome the difficulties/obstacles?How do newly arrived people learn about being information literate? Previous research has examined the importance of information literacy of newly arrived people and discussed how they are looking for important information. In this work, in order to gain an empirical insight, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven women from Syria. The timeframe for the collection of this empirical data was more than two months. The results conveyed that the ‘newly arrived people’ are looking for important information by friends, relatives and social network. Said individuals have a tendancy to spend copious amounts of time to gain reliable and relevant information. Likewise, newly arrived people are in need of more support which would require further facilitation when entering into the labour market and integrating into society. The analysis also provided traits of newly arrived people needing more support and help learning about information literacy. What can be concluded, is that the newly arrived people did not have enough knowledge about library instructions when offering services. Among other issues, the results showed a great interest in culture, as well as an ambition to learn language and more about society, especially the new arrivals whom are looking for jobs despite the fact that they have been in the country for a short period.

This thesis is about medical libraries that, foremost, serve the healthcare personnel in their evidence-based practices. The visibility aspect of these types of libraries is explored, both through a librarian’s and a user’s perspective. A theory of invisible information work is applied to understand why and how visibility affects the libraries and the librarians’ work. The visibility is also explored through a user perspective, where theories of user barriers are applied to a group of users with remote access to the medical library. The data is derived from semi-structured interviews with medical librarians, clinical librarians, and a group of healthcare personnel, and analyzed thematically through the theoretical perspectives. Furthermore, the medical library as a place is explored and discussed, which deepens the analysis and understanding of the medical libraries’ impact on the healthcare personnel and their evidence-based practices, as well as the visibility and role of the medical library. The conclusion is that the library and its services, to a large extent, are invisible to the user group, and several barriers to the users’ library access and use are detected and exemplified in the thesis. Another conclusion is that medical librarians have a range of strategies to counter the invisibility, but factors such as resources and being part of a healthcare organization affect the possibility of implementing these strategies.