The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to develop a deeper understanding of children’s librarians and their work related information practice, more specifically on how they stay informed and updated in their professional role. The empirical material was collected through six semi structured interviews with children’s librarians from different public libraries in Sweden. The material was then analysed with Bates (2002) model of different modes of information seeking. The results showed that the children’s librarians' work consisted of a wide variety of tasks which influenced their information seeking practice and consequently had to cover a wide spectrum of areas. The respondents further described how their work with library activities directed to children affected their information seeking as they needed varying forms of information to support the development and implementation of these activities. The most central information sources that the respondents seemed to turn to in order to stay updated were networks, colleagues, their target group (children), the library collection, other organizations, other professions who also worked with children and the internet. The main modes of information seeking that the children’s librarians’ seemed to use to stay informed was ‘Searching’ and ‘Monitoring’. These are the most directed information seeking modes that are included in Bates (2002) model. The information seeking was further identified as an ongoing activity that was integrated with other work tasks. Staying informed was often described as being driven by a personal interest which sometimes led to work related information seeking in the spare time.

The aim of this thesis is to understand and describe the ways in which information literacy is expressed in the work of schoollibrarians. Information literacy is seen as an understanding of how information is sought and used within a social setting. Research questions guiding this endeavour are: 1. In what ways do school librarians seek and use information? 2. How can the information literacy of school librarians be described based on their information practices? In order to shed light on the social setting that constitutes the work of school librarians, practice theory and a sociocultural perspective on information literacy is used as a theoretical framework. Empirical data were produced by way of five semistructured interviews with active school librarians. These interviews were analysed thematically. The findings point toward information seeking and use in school library work being integrated information activities taking place in relation to the performance of work tasks, as well as being a highly social activity. Information literacy is described as enacted in the performance of these information activities. It is also understood as expressed on multiple levels, from being informed about current events in the world and within the school, to understanding how this may effect the day to day performance of work tasks.

This study examines journalism student’s information use atSödertörn University during the writing process of theirbachelor thesis. The students are divided in two groupsfollowing the schools main bachelor programs majoring injournalism.The method used in this study has been a reference analysisof the student’s bibliographies along with five semistructuredinterviews. The study stems upon a socioculturalperspective and drives the thesis that information use is asituated activity. In order to analyze which criteria used bythe students to determine source credibility, the concept of“cognitive authorities” has been used.The results of the reference analysis show that the studentsuse a large quantity of empirical material, first and foremostnewspaper articles. Monographs and anthologies are alsofrequently used and a high quantity of those could also befound in the students’ curriculums.The interview study shows that the respondents are verymuch aware about the differences in writing a news articleand writing a bachelor thesis. But even if the information uselooks different between these two, the demands from thestudents of the sources are similar to the demands found inearlier research on active journalists; they ought to be current,easy to access and credible.This study strengthens the thesis that information use issituated and that the information use among these journalismstudents differs from earlier research groups. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this master thesis is to examine some information aspects of decision-making in Swedish municipal committees. Which are the information needs and how do they emerge? How is the needed information sought and received and which are the sources? How do the members of the committees use information when making decisions? To answer these questions qualitative interviews were conducted with four politicians (two chairpersons representing the political majority and two vice-chairpersons representing the opposition) and three officials in a municipality with a population of about 50 000. The politicians were interviewed in capacity of decision-makers, whereas the officials from the local administration are of interest through their decision-supportive role, which includes providing of reports and other information. The examination indicates that even if the conditions to some extent differ between the committees, the administration is highly influential: Notions and proposals about action may come from inhabitants, organizations, politicians etc., but are handled by the administration, which often is the problem formulating actor, through which the informational needs nearly always are canalized. Even though politicians and officials in some extent turn to the same information sources (e.g. local inhabitants or Government offices) the politicians’ information seeking outside the administration is marginal. The primary part of the seeking and receiving of information is managed by the working committees, where officials explain essential parts of a case (the case is treated in a written report) and motivate their standpoints. When using this and other information in decision-making there is often a strong ambition of consensus between the majority and the opposition; an interesting result considering the different political affiliations among the decision-makers. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s Thesis is to examine the information use and information behavior of the scientists at the company ”Forskningsbolaget”. For this purpose an Information Audit was carried out using both interviews with six managers and a questionnaire, which was sent out to the entire population of 213 scientists. After finding out what information the scientists use and how they obtain it the aim was to answer the question of to what extent the company’s Information Centre can meet these needs. The theoretical framework consists of Information management with focus on Choo’s Information management cycle. The result of this study shows that the information use to some extent differ in each division of the company. Printed scientific journals are the number one source of information used by the scientists and it’s also the most obtained source from the Information centre. Many of the scientists would like to have access to a wider range of e-journals as lack of time is an issue. In search for new information the scientists turn to the Internet as their first choice and Google is widely used. The study revealed information gaps which combined with the low use of the library indicate that the Information Centre needs to make itself and its products more visible in the organization. Another issue to consider is the impact that the fee-based system has on the use of the library. The organization also needs to communicate its view on information throughout the company, for instance by formulating an information policy. / 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

The purpose of this essay is to explore how students in secondary school seek out and use information. More specifically, the essay examines how the search and use of information differs between students working in groups and students working independently. The essay draws on in-depth interviews with six students. Two different theories are used to analyse the transcripts from the interviews. The first theory consists of Carol Kuhlthau’s six different stages showing how the students’ feelings, emotions and actions change during the information seeking process. The second theory is Louise Limberg’s category describing the different approaches to information seeking among students in secondary school. The analysis of the results shows that the interviewed can be contained in Limberg’s category A. This means that the students lack knowledge when they search for and use information. Even students who are working together lack knowledge in this. However, the students are rather good at evaluating the information. At the same time, many of the interviewed did not feel confident during the process of information seeking. To obtain help in searching for information, the students use their supervisor (teacher) rather than the librarian. The conclusion is that the method of working in groups should be changed and students can learn to work together in groups if the teacher takes a more active role during the process and help the students to work together. They also need more help from their teachers in processing and evaluating information and the students also need more help from the librarian in searching for information.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate the information use in teacher education students’ degree projects. The first study is a reference analysis used to categorize the cited sources in 33 degree projects from the teacher education program at one Swedish university. The aim was to find out what types of sources were used, in particular the amount of citations to scholarly publications. The results of the reference analysis showed that the majority of sources used were text books. Scholarly publications amounted to 10% of the citations and scholarly articles were scarcely used. The second study consists of semi-structured interviews with six supervisors to gain understanding of their functions in relation to information use and to find out what judgements supervisors make of the reliability of sources. The supervisors were found to have four functions: suggest literature, refer students to the library, guide selection of sources and instruct on the use of literature. Doctoral theses, scholarly articles and research based literature are source types with a high degree of reliability according to the supervisors, while sources without a foundation in research were considered to have a low degree of reliability. The interview data was analysed using Norman Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis and the cognitive authority of source types was discussed. This thesis identifies a discrepancy between sources used by students and the supervisors’ judgements of reliable sources and the conclusion is that increased knowledge and use of scholarly publications holds a potential for teacher education and the teaching profession.

<p>Uppsatsen undersöker hur informationsanvändningen och informationsbehoven ser ut i designstudenters arbete med olika projekt, i syfte att ta fram kvalitetskriterier för informationssystem och informationsresurser. Underlaget för uppsatsen bygger på utforskande ostrukturerade djupintervjuer med 5 master-studenter i industriell design vid Umeå Designhögskola. Informanterna fick i detalj beskriva arbetsprocessen i minst ett projekt de deltagit i och frågor ställdes sedan kring vilken information som användes i denna process, och vad denna information bidrog med. Analysen av detta material gav 6 stycken kategorier av information. Dessa kopplades samman med olika användningsområden:</p><p>Informationen inom kategorin textuell information (artiklar, böcker, projektbeskrivningar, etc.) kan delas in i två huvudsakliga användningsområden: A) den används för att få specifika faktauppgifter om ett område; och/eller B) den används för att mer allmänt göra sig en bild av hur relationerna i projektets kontext ser ut. Informationen inom kategorin visuell information (bilder, foton, skisser, etc.) kan delas in i fyra huvudsakliga användningsområden: A) den används som visuell inspiration; B) den används för att mer direkt guida vid skissning, modellering och liknande konstnärliga praktiker; C) den används för att illustrera någonting i själva projektpresentationen; och/eller D) den används för att mer allmänt förstå projektets kontext. Informationen inom kategorin audio-visuell information (videor från hemsidor främst Youtube) kan delas in i fyra huvudsakliga användningsområden A) den används för visuell inspiration; B) den används för attmer direkt guida vid utformnings- och konstruktionsprocessen; C) den används för att illustrera någonting i själva projektpresentationen; och/eller D) den används för att mer allmänt förstå projektets kontext. Informationen inom kategorin taktil/skapande information (beröra och uppleva,att skissa och skissen, att modellera och modellen, etc.) kan delas in i fem huvudsakliga användningsområden: A) den används för att nå en personlig förståelse av en form, yta ellerliknande hos den egna designen; B) den används för att mer direkt guida vid vidare skissning, modellering och liknande konstnärliga praktiker; C) den används för att illustrera någonting i själva projektpresentationen; D) den används för att testa designens genomförbarhet; och/eller E) den används för att nå och förstå en användargrupps reaktioner. Informationen inom kategorin interpersonell information (intervjuer, observationer, handledning, etc.) kan delas in i fyra huvudsakliga användningsområden: A) den används för att designern bättre skall kunna identifiera sig med sina tänkta användare; B) den används för att finna ut vilka problemområden som finns kring ett projekt; C) den används för att nå och förstå en användargrupps reaktioner; och/eller D) den används för att få andra perspektiv på designen. Personell information (tidigare erfarenheter) används, i de olika projektbeskrivningarna, som inspiration för designlösningar att forska vidare kring. Allt som allt handlar det om 14 olika användningsområden där ett fåtal överlappar flera olika av informationskategorierna. Hur dessa överlappningar sker syns tydligare i Illustration 2 (sida 29).</p><p>En kronologisk modell över vilka faser ett projekt vanligtvis gick igenom konstruerades utifrån projektbeskrivningarna (faserna illustreras i Illustration 1, sida 28, och i Illustration 2 åskådliggörs vilka av de nämnda användningsområdena och informationskategorierna som är tydligast knutna till varje fas). De huvudsakliga frågeställningar som i varje projektfas krävde svar fick beteckna fasernas olika informationsbehov:</p><p>Forskningsfasens informationsbehov: Vilka är de tänkta användarna? Hur agerar dessa? Vilken är den tänkta tekniken? Hur interagerar de tänkta användarna med den tänkta tekniken? Skissningsfasens informationsbehov: Vilka är problemområdena? Hur kan de olika problemområdena lösas designmässigt? Utvärderingsfasens informationsbehov: Är de tänkta designlösningarna realistiska? Hur reagerar användare och/eller kollegor på designlösningarna? Vilka lösningar förtjänar att fokuseras på för vidare arbete? Designfasens informationsbehov: Hur kan den valda designlösningen vidareutvecklas? Hur kan designlösningen utformas grafiskt? Vilken grafisk lösning fungerar bäst? Polereringsfasens informationsbehov: Hur skall designprojektet presenteras? Vilket material skall användas för att bäst åskådliggöra designprocessen?</p><p>Slutsatserna av analysen angiven ovan är att informationssystem och informationsresurser riktade mot projektarbetande designstudenter både måste se till att de olika informationsformerna finns representerade i informationsrepertoaren samt att denna information klarar att tillfredställa projektfasernas informationsbehov. I denna process är samverkan och god kommunikation mellande parter som ingår i det övergripande informationssystemet av hög vikt. Informationen tillhandahållen genom informationssystem och informationsresurser måste även vara kontinuerligt uppdaterad och lättillgänglig. En diskussion kring hur biblioteken kan spela en roll för designstudenter avslutar uppsatsen och här läggs fokus på biblioteket som förmedlare av främst textuell, visuell och personell information. Biblioteken har traditionellt varit en plats för främst texter och i viss mån bilder, men kan även spela en viktig roll som en plats för inspiration och nya möten.</p>

The purpose of this Bachelor’s thesis is to examine university librarians’ perceptions of information literacy, of students’ information literacy and of education in information literacy. The focus is on how they perceive the students’ information literacy development during their university studies. Also of interest in this study is how librarians think that their teaching in information literacy should be included in the students’ other courses.   Three librarians at a Swedish university library were interviewed using qualitative interviews. The material from the interviews was then analyzed with Bruce’s model of different conceptions of information literacy and Limberg’s and Folkesson’s categories for methods and goals for education in information seeking.                       The results show that information literacy is of high importance for the students to be able to graduate. The students’ information literacy level differs amongst them, but it is clear that it actually develops during their university studies. The education in information literacy should be integrated gradually with the students’ other courses and there should also be a connection with what the students study at the time. To make this work, the teachers have to inform the librarians about the students’ tasks. This also shows that it is very important to have a working collaboration between teachers and librarians, between university departments and libraries. The responsibility for students’ developing in information literacy should be shared by librarians, teachers, the university and students themselves.