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

This master thesis deals with events, dynamics and problems of mediated information seeking within the context of a new information service called "Book a librarian". The study, based on a survey and interviews both in academic and public libraries and participant observations in academic libraries, has its theoretical base in the cognitive theory of information retrieval interaction. The cognitive view is used to throw light upon the need of an ongoing dialogue during the session in order to detect the information needs of the user and to conduct a successful retrieval of information. The communicative interaction is seen as threepart interaction between the intermediary, the user and the information system, where the current cognitive states of all three participants are involved. The study shows that the cognitive obstacles for a successful mediation and information retrieval are mostly connected to participants current knowledge of the subject and of the retrieval techniques. Obstacles are also shown in the participants differing expectations concerning the retrieval event itself or in communicating the information need. The study shows that the cognitive state of the user and intermediary goes through changes as they both, through interaction, learn more about the subject of investigation and about the new ways of conducting the search. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This study is about information needs and library habits among newly retired people. The purpose of this master thesis is to examine the affective and cognitive needs that come with retirement. In what way do the information needs of this group change due to retirement? In order to answer this question we make use of two theoretical models; Role theory and Wilson’s model of information needs. When it comes to library habits, we use Andersson and Skot-Hansens model to examine how newly retired people use the library now and how they could use it on basis of their needs in their new role. The method used in this study is qualitative; interviews are done with six newly retired people. The results show that newly retired people have a cognitive need to create meaning in their lives and an affective need of being needed to compensate for their loss of work role. These needs do not however create that many information needs. The newly retired people who were interviewed consider that they already know everything that they need to know, especially when it comes to information about their interests, which they have been into for many years. If there is something they need to know there tends not to be a problem finding information about it. The library is used as a centre of knowledge, for example newspaper-reading, and as a centre of culture, for example book borrowing. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine the information needs of reporters at a Swedish daily newspaper, and see if they are met by the information resources provided by the newspaper. It examines if there are resources which are not used and why. The examination is based on Henczel’s model for information auditing. The method used is five qualitative interviews with reporters and 25 inquiries are sent out as well. Two interviews with people working with information management on the newspaper are also conducted. The theoretical framework consists of Taylor’s theories about information use environments, Byström’s research on task complexity and how it affects information use, and a discussion about information, knowledge and knowledge management. The result shows that reporters’ information needs are vast and vary a lot depending on what kind of issues they write about. Most of the information needs are met without the information resources provided by the newspaper, although certain resources are considered very important by some of the reporters. There are also unused resources. Reasons for this are that they do not contain the kind of information needed by the reporters, that reporters do not know they exist, or that they are not updated. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Master's thesis is to investigate the library needs of distance students. This user study has a student perspective and concentrates on the main question of which way library needs might be expressed by distance students. Associated topics addressed by this study include; the problem of learning centres lacking their own library support, how distance students look upon library support as a concept and whether distance students prefer public libraries or university libraries, and why they make this choice. These questions may give the answer to how distance students deal with information literacy. Theories chosen by the study are in the fields of pedagogical and library science, the social cultural theory by Roger Säljö and in Tom Wilson's theories on user studies and information needs. The method chosen is a qualitative study where eight distance students have been individually interviewed. The results show a number of findings; that distance students prefer public libraries to university facilities, that knowledge levels on information literacy are low and that there is little education currently in information literacy and library support. The conclusion is to provide better and clearer library support at the start of a distance programme in order for students to practice these skills as soon as possible. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine the information needs of gay, lesbian and bisexual adolescents’ when they are coming out. I also examine what kind of information they seek and where they might find this information. The purpose is also to examine what role the public or school library plays. The study is conducted through qualitative interviews with gay, lesbian and bisexual adolescents’. The theoretical framework includes studies about information needs and information use. The results indicate that there is evident information needs at the coming-out-stadium. The information sought is of many different kinds, including gay fiction and also webpage’s containing gay information. Gay fiction is, among other things, used for finding an identity, which can be hard to find in a society where the heterosexual identity is the norm. The questions I am working with are: How do homo- or bisexual adolescents’ information needs look like during the coming-out-process? What information sources have been used and how were they used? What purpose has the public library in seeking for information? and What problems has the informants come across in their seeking for information? The results that were found indicate that there is in evident need for information for the adolescents’, the sources that were used was mostly Internet but also books and the library. Among the problems that the informants came across were the lack of information and also the age of the information. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to find out in which ways a group of first generation immigrants use Swedish papers and magazines in a public library and which information needs this group has about Swedish society. One important aspect in this essay is integration of immigrants in the Swedish society as a possible effect of newspaper reading. The method used in this study is qualitative. Data is generated through semi-structured interviews. The immigrants have been represented by eight persons from different ethnic groups. Through a literature survey of earlier research I have presented a background to immigrants’ information needs and possible connections between on the one hand education, employment, gender, duration of their stay in the country and on the other hand on the impact on information needs patterns. The study has two theoretical starting points: Diaz’ integration theory and a modified version of Höglund – Perssons’ model of information use. Of great interest for this essay have been the effects of the information use, especially integration of immigrants in Swedish society. The results of the analyses show that information seeking and information use have had a more profound effect on integration in the language community (kommunikativ integration) than on the social, structural and political integration. The majority of immigrants in the study do not feel integrated in the Swedish society. However we can conclude that this study tends to show that reading and information seeking have effect on some aspects of integration and that the public library has an important role in this process. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Hjärtinfarkt är en allvarlig sjukdom, ofta förknippad med oro och ångest hos den drabbade. Patienter kan hamna i en akut kris till följd av sjukdomen och det plötsliga insjuknandet. Ett tydligt samband finns mellan livsstil, utvecklandet av och risken för återinsjuknande i sjukdomen. Patientinformation utgör en viktig del i vården och rehabiliteringen av hjärtinfarktpatienten. Informationens liksom vårdandets yttersta mål är att vägleda patienten mot en högre grad av hälsa och välbefinnande samt att lindra eller förhindra lidande. Vårdtiden för en okomplicerad hjärtinfarkt beräknas till 3-6 dagar. Under vårdtiden ska patienten hinna landa i sin nya situation och samtidigt hinna ta till sig given information. Patientinformation faller till stor del inom sjuksköterskans ansvarsområde. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie är att beskriva patienters upplevelser av information i samband med hjärtinfarkt, under vårdtiden på sjukhus. Sju kvalitativa artiklar har granskats utifrån Evans modell. Kvalitativ forskning syftar till att skapa förståelse för ett fenomen genom att likheter och olikheter identifieras ur informanternas levda erfarenheter. Analysen resulterade i fem teman, två av temana innehåller subteman: Upplevelser av alltför generell information, Svårigheter att ta till sig information, subteman: Tidpunktens betydelse vid information, Betydelsen av rätt mängd information, Upplevelser av informationens innehåll och information som anses viktig, subteman: Medicinsk information, Livsstilsråd, Metoder och hjälpmedel som tydliggör informationen, Det pedagogiska mötets betydelse vid information. Alla temana går in i varandra och måste alla samverka för att nå resultat. Upplevelser av generell information och behov av individuellt anpassad information löper som en röd tråd genom hela resultatet. Det bästa sättet att tillhandahålla individuell information enligt patienterna i resultatet var i det enskilda pedagogiska möte, mellan vårdare och patient, där patientens livsvärld bejakas i den stunden hon eller han fick information. / Uppsatsnivå: C

The aim with this thesis is to investigate how librarians experience communication with children in reference interviews. In today’s interactive community it is meaningful to study how children communicate with the librarian in virtual reference interview as well as in ordinary reference interviews in physical libraries. Focus has been on finding out what children ask about and how they are asking in virtual reference interviews and in ordinary reference interviews, what type of information needs the children have. The study also focuses on which barriers there can be in reference interviews. Empirical data has been collected by interviewing librarians who work in physical libraries and librarians who work with virtual reference interviews. The method used is qualitative interviews. The transcriptions were analyzed using Höglund’s and Persson’s theory about information needs and Buckland’s theory about barriers in information seeking. The findings show that the children’s own questions represent a subjective information need and the questions that children ask that come from school represents an objective information need. There are both similarities and differences between face to face and virtual reference interviews. The main differences are that the nonverbal communication is lost in the virtual reference interview and that the children are more anonymous in the virtual reference interview and therefore ask more private questions.

This Bachelor’s thesis is related to the area within library and information studies that focuses on information seeking and information practices. The study deals with how politically engaged young people seek information in relation to their political interests. The purpose of the study is to create an understanding of the roles that different forms of information-related activities play within the framework of political interest and of the feelings, experiences and challenges that such activities may give rise to for those involved. The study also discusses purposes and motivation for information seeking and use in political engagement. In order to address the problem statement I have conducted a qualitative interview study where I interviewed four politically active young people. The findings of the study indicate a number of recurring trends but also variations in the information practices of the informants. Daily news updates and the social interaction appear to be among the most important information-related activities. Some of the information-related activities are connected to the elements of the engagement that are more personal and private in nature, while other information activities are related to the social dimensions of the engagement. It would seem that political engagement is divided in two different spheres, a social and another more individual sphere. This finding is important for our understanding of how the different information-related activities are linked to each other. The findings and the conclusions of the study are presented in a theoretical model.