The aim of this Master thesis is, from a sociocultural perspective, to investigate the views the teaching librarians at Södertörn University Library (SHB) have on learning, information literacy, and their own pedagogical role, and how their views affect user education and their ideas about the future of user education.The research questions used were: How do the teaching librarians view learning? How is this view reflected in their work with user education? How do the teaching librarians envisage user education in the future, and how do they work to reach that goal?Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teaching librarians at SHB. The interviews were then analysed using qualitative content analysis.The results of the study show that the teaching librarians at SHB share a sociocultural view on learning, and take a communicative oriented approach to user education. They believe that communication and interaction support learning, and in the classroom they stimulate discussions both between librarian and student, and between the students themselves. In the future, they hope for improved collaboration between librarians and academic staff, and that user education will become a natural element of the curriculum. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how instruction librarians‟ perceptions of web scale discovery services and their perceptions of the impact of web scale discovery on students‟ information literacy are reflected in their instruction practices in academic libraries. This study addresses how instruction librarians generally perceive WSDS and students‟ information literacy as well as how instruction librarians conduct their instruction sessions. The study‟s empirical data consists of the responses received through seven semi-structured interviews with ten instruction librarians at three separate universities in the Västra Götaland region. The study concludes that library instruction practices reflect many of the librarians‟ perceptions surrounding WSDS, most notably in the areas of source criticism and critical assessment of search results. The study also shows that the search strategies, techniques, and tools taught in instruction sessions are greatly influenced by librarians‟ perceptions of the usefulness of WSDS in student search processes. The librarians‟ responses demonstrate the importance of teaching students search strategies and techniques as well as helping them develop critical evaluation skills that will remain relevant as search technologies continue to evolve.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how information seeking processes,librarians and users are formed and constructed in web-based search guides ofpublic libraries. Questions raised are: How are information seekingprocesses presented in the search guides? How do libraries and librariansappear in the texts? How are users presented in the search guides?The thesis analyses web-based search guides from two large public libraries insouthern Sweden, eight texts in total. The texts are analysed through asystemic functional text analysis based on ideational meta-functions,interpersonal meta-functions and also register and context.Based on the textual analysis, effects and consequences of the design andformulation of the texts are discussed. Theories and previous research aboutinformation literacy, user education and expertise are used. Mainly fourdifferent approaches to user education are identified to further clarify anddeepen the discussion.The conclusion is that the design of web-based search guides hasconsequences for how information seeking processes, libraries and librariansand users are shaped and created in the web-based search guides.

The aim of this study is to examine the user education that librarians at university libraries have with students on the medical programme, to present how the user education is conducted, to identify which approach emerges and how the user education can be developed. The theory underlying this study is four approaches that Sundin (2005) identified when examining web-based user education: A source-oriented approach, a behavior-oriented approach, a process-oriented approach and a communication-oriented approach. By highlighting these approaches, it becomes clearer which focus the user education have with students on the medical programme. To get hold of this knowledge, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four librarians who work with user education with students on the medical programme. The collected material was analyzed using qualitative text analysis. The result shows that user education is organized in different ways. In common is that all librarians meet students in semester one and ten. Mostly the user education has the form of lectures but even practical exercises are included. All four approaches emerged in the user educations but the most prominent was the process-oriented approach. All librarians describe the students’ understanding as central in the user education which can be connected to a process-oriented approach. Students’ understanding is mentioned several times during the interview, and even when the librarians talk about what is most important for them to pass on in user education. All librarians have a great variety of suggestions on how user education can be developed in the future.

There are many research studies about integration processes but none about user education for immigrants. The aim of this Bachelor´s thesis is to examine how a library in Sweden contributes to the integration of immigrants and how user education for immigrants, organized by the library, is experienced by librarians and students. Diaz theory of five different ways to study integration is applied to the material concerning students’ and librarians’ experiences of user education. Students want more extensive choice of literature in their native language and even more information about Swedish society. The librarians believe they can help immigrants even more in their integration process, but it is difficult because of the limited resources. The students also request activities that can be useful when seeking employment. From the interviews, we can see that the library is working mostly with the social and subjective integration, while they don’t work so much with housing integration.

This study explores the different definitions of source criticism and credibility presented by different swedish university libraries in their web-based user education programmes. The purpose of the study is to explore what themes and definitions are linked to source criticism and credibility as defined by the university library. The two research questions that this study explores is: Firstly, What source criticism themes does the university library identify as important in the web-based user education programme? Secondly, What are the differences in the university libraries identified source criticism themes? The theory is based on a framework for credibility and this theory is used as a tool to develop an analytic tool to use with the research data. The method of analysis was a content analysis with the added analytic tool. The collection of data was done by visiting different university librararies webpages and navigating to the user education programme in source criticism. After the collection of the texts, the themes and describing terminology was counted within the text. The data was then compiled into the analytic tool. This study firstly identifies six themes as reoccuring between the analyzed university libraries, these themes are source reputation, information security or quality, maintenance of information and metadata, objectivity, the presentation of information and webpages reputation. Secondly this study identifies that there are differences in how themes are presented through the university library websites.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Swedish highereducation librarians mediate discovery tools to its users. Thisstudy aims to investigate higher education librarians’ generalattitudes towards discovery tools, their perception ofstudents’ discovery tool usage, and how they mediatediscovery tools to students through reference interviews anduser training. The empirical ground of this study is a semistructuredsurvey that was answered by 115 instructinglibrarians. The study concludes that although librariansgenerally have a critical attitude towards discovery tools theyalso think that the discovery tools serve a useful purpose,especially as a starting point in the information searchprocess. The study also concludes that librarians generallyperceive students’ attitudes towards discovery tools aspositive, although students do not always use the tools totheir full potential. The librarians also raised the importanceof user training that is less focused on teaching searchtechniques and more focused on information literacy. / Program: Bibliotekarie

During recent years the professional role of librarians has changed considerably. Development in the areas of information technology and the Internet has had a strong impact on libraries. Today’s visitors are in greater need of librarian support for information seeking and other services. This has led to a shift towards the development of a more complex pedagogical role for librarians. The aim of this Master thesis is to analyse the pedagogic and professional role of librarians, and of the nature of co-operation between librarians and teachers. Our research is based on interviews with librarians at a University library and with teachers. The interviews were analysed through a qualitative, thematic approach. The most important conclusions of our research are that librarians are very motivated to work together with the teachers and that they use every opportunity to do so. The teachers need librarians’ knowledge about sources, methods and search strategies to be able to carry out relevant information seeking tasks in a class. Findings indicate that some of those tasks might have been impossible for the teachers to assist their students with without the co-operation of a librarian. Teachers and librarians have several forums where they can interact. One example is the library’s reference group. As a result new forms of cooperation have evolved. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate a few economy students’ perceptions of user education connected to essay work, focusing on aspects of information literacy of importance to the studies and the role of the user education in this context. The study was conducted with a qualitative approach. Five economy students were interviewed regarding their experiences of working with information, their perceptions of user education and its impact on their essay work. The interviews were transcribed and analysed with Bruce’s (1997) relational model of information literacy. The results show that the user education focused mainly on presenting various electronic databases and how to use them effectively. This is consistent with the first two of Bruce’s conceptions of information literacy. The areas in which the students experienced difficulties during the process of seeking and using information were in part corresponding to the user education and the students generally found the education to be helpful to their studies. However, within some areas of difficulty the students received no instruction, neither through the user education nor through the teachers in their subject field. These areas concern strategies for performing critical analysis of sources and enhancing the essays reliability, and are consistent with the third and the fifth conceptions of information literacy, concerning the information process and knowledge construction. To increase the awareness of information literacy as a complex concept and facilitate the students’ work, it should be included in the main education to a greater extent, and not be limited to the library’s courses. / Uppsatsnivå: D

In this Master thesis interest is directed towards approaches toinformation literacy (IL) and critical thinking in the educationalactivities of university libraries. The aspiration of universitylibrarians to promote the critical abilities of students isproblematized. At the center of attention is the project“Lärandemål för informationskompetens” [Learning outcomes forinformation literacy], which in 2006 was carried out incollaboration between the Swedish university libraries, in responseto the educational reforms connected to the Bologna Process.Through the discourse analytical framework of NormanFairclough, documents related to the project “Lärandemål förinformationskompetens” are studied in order to identifydominating approaches to IL. The purpose is to investigate anddiscuss the possible implications of the dominating perspectives,with regard to the development of critical thinking amongstudents.The study results in the identification of two main discourses, thestandardization discourse and the discourse on employability. Bothof these discourses are seen to be connected to two overarchingdiscourses also identified in the study, the market discourse andthe discourse on information overflow.In conclusion, it was found that the objectivist and positivistepistemology underlying the dominating perspectives, in severalrespects is counterproductive to the aspiration to promote criticalthinking among students. A social constructionist approach issuggested as an alternative. / Program: Bibliotekarie